tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83275032569650231322024-03-12T19:25:17.008-05:00North Shore Meditation and Dharma CenterNorth Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-49438593046499082602014-01-12T08:50:00.001-06:002014-01-12T08:50:18.680-06:00Seeing Stories as Stories Rather Than Truths<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Our Stories Are the Problem<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Introduction to Stories<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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Think of the mind as a filter: it filters the environment in
a way that makes sense to us, that are consistent with our understanding of the
world–filtering a very few things in, filtering most everything out. These
filters are initiated by the most primitive parts of our brain. They are, for
the most part, pre-cognitive. They happen without our knowing it. We call them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sankharas</i>–meaning <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">stories</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We naturally believe
and cling to our stories, causing ourselves to suffer. <o:p></o:p></div>
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There are several different models for analyzing our stories
so we can see that they are, on the most fundamental level, fictions. When we see
this we can use our stories in a very lightweight utilitarian way (to know your
car from mine) without assigning them a weightiness that requires us to buy-in
and suffer.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, we need stories to function in everyday life. We need
to know our children from the neighbor’s, our house from the neighbor’s. But if
we believe these stories are capital T true, not as mere understandings, we
suffer, and suffer needlessly. If the don’t capital B believe them, then there’s
no, or at least very little,fear, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stress
or anxiety or irritation and frustration, or worse. <o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the most effective ways to understand that the real
nature of our stories is, ultimately, false, is to examine how we construct a
story. When we analyze the construction of a story itself, it becomes obvious
that all our stories are false and foolish–albeit useful.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Here are six models in which we construct stories. They are
great tools for deconstructing any story that is causing you to suffer.
Deconstruct the story effectively and the suffering falls away, regardless of
the content of the story.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Subjective Nature of Stories<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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All stories are simply a perception of what is there or what
is happening; they are not actually what is there or what is happening. Not
really. Take what we see as an example. The rod and cone cells in the retina
allow us to see and differentiate colors, but only in what is called the
“visible light spectrum,” which is about a thousandth of the light spectrum. So
what we see isn’t what’s there, but only what our rods and cones can make
contact with. We each have different amounts of rod and cones, so while our
brain is telling us that what we see is what everyone else sees, in fact, we
are all seeing something different.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Consider smelling. We have very limited sensory abilities in
this area. As with seeing, each of us has different olfactory abilities. A
professional wine taster or a perfume maker can perceive vastly more aromas
that I can. But the way I perceive odors is the way I think everyone does; I
don’t think, I wonder what I’m not smelling when I sniff a wine or dab some
cologne on my wrist. I just think we all smell what I do. Which is not at all
the case.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Compared with, say, a dog, who can track us by following our
scent days after we have been there, we barely have any olfactory sensibilities.
To a dog, we are smelly water bags, leaving a stench that lasts for days
everywhere we have been. Fortunately, when we are in a room together, it is
generally impossible for us to smell each other.<o:p></o:p></div>
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What our senses tell us is there really isn’t; it is just
our story, our very limited subjective perception of what is is there, of what
is happening. It is our fiction; not actually what’s there. And because of the
way the brain feeds us the information, we believe it is true, real, solid and
the way every sees it. But it simply isn’t so.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Analytic View of Stories:<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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All stories have certain characteristics:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1;">For things to be other
than what they are<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1;">For us to know what to
desire more of (or get less of), and<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1;">To present a world that if
permanent (reification)<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
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Also, stories:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;">Provide the basis for our
self-awareness, and<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2;">Make our sense of self and
of the world consistent<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
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But, all stories are<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3;">False, and<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3;">Foolish, yet<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3;">We are required to believe
them because they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">us</i>, they
are our explanation of who we are<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
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In the end, all stories are troublesome for they inherently
lead us to see the world through filters that causes us stress and anxiety,
pain and suffering, never peacefulness. We need to be very clear that our
stories are the source of all of our suffering, not the events the stories are
about.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In practice, we can’t just move from bad stories to no
stories where we are simply present and fully engaged with what’s happening. We
need an interim step. We need (1) to weaken our stories, not to believe or
attach to them with our usual intensity; and (2) we need stories that cause us
to act in ways that move us toward progressively more and more peaceful
behaviors and attitudes. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Use these “good” stories as rafts. Let them take you to a
place in your life where they are no longer necessary and then simply allow
them to flow away. Patiences, compassion and generosity are three of the most
important rafts to happier and healthier lives.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Structural View of Stories<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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All stories are constructed with three structural elements:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4;">I am the center of the
story (universe); everything revolves around me. This is the only way the
brain can present us with information, in the “I am” format.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4;">What my brain is telling
me is true. The brain presents us with information to make the world
consistent with what we believe and understand; it is not particularly reason
and logic based. Consistency always trumps reason.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4;">Inanimate objects (people
and animals we don’t know fit into this category as they are perceived as
functional inanimate) have interpersonal relationships with my. For
example, when I look out the window of a train, the trees go by me.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Aggregates View of Stories<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
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When we make a sense contact, we cling to our feeling about
the contact–our affinity or aversion. If the contact and its attendant feeling
are strong enough, we cognize it, meaning we label it, filter it in, and set
our brain to writing a story about it. The stories are fabricated from memory
fragments assembled because they somehow seem close to what’s happening, and
because they make sense in terms of our previous understandings and beliefs.
The brain then sends the story to our consciousness and we asset it is who we
are and what we believe. So the story is written without our knowledge from
fragments of older stories, each similarly written from fragments of older
stories. It’s a house of cards; it certainly has nothing to do with what is
happening in the present moment.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">An Emptiness View of Stories<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The way we process information is to reify things. We do
that by creating stories that falsely make things appear as concrete, separate
and permanent. We know better. We know that nothing is concrete, separate and
permanent.<o:p></o:p></div>
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If anything were permanent, the time and space it occupies
would have to be permanent. That means the planet would have to stop spinning,
the universe stop expanding, and so on. We know better. We just don’t belief it<o:p></o:p></div>
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So the stories our mind presents to us are not permanent,
they are empty. We know this because everything arises in dependence on other
things, and if anything were permanent it could not, by definition, arise in
dependence on other things. In order for something to be separate and
independent, it could not depend on anything else for its existence. This means
that our stories, while practically useful in the everyday world, are
ultimately false, ultimately mistaken views–not to be taken seriously, certainly
not to be clung to. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Dualistic View of Stories<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In the nature of the way we create the stories that tell us
who we are and how and what the world is, we aren’t actually describing what is
happening. Instead, we are comparing what appears to be happening to some other
similar but opposite story and then creating our story of what’s happening
based not on the event but on the comparison.<o:p></o:p></div>
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For example, I look in the mirror and say to myself, “Wow,
look at all that gray hair; you’re <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">really</i>
getting old.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are three events
happening: the wow, the gray, and the old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The wow event arises when my mind compares some imaginary image of me
with considerably less or no gray to what I see in the mirror and then tells my
brain to be surprised rather than calm and comfortable with the difference. The
gray event, again, is a comparative story, not what is actually there. Of
course there is some gray hair, but “all that” means I am comparing it to some
image of myself with considerably less gray hair and using the comparison to
negatively value myself. Finally, I am not really getting older looking in the
mirror, unless I compare what I see to a younger image I have of myself and
then write the getting older story.<o:p></o:p></div>
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On analysis, any story the mind creates and tells you, you
will find is build dualistically, built through comparison with an opposite
story–less gray / more gray; old / young, etc. It is never about what is
happening in the here and now.<o:p></o:p></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-70951516542152878412014-01-12T08:10:00.005-06:002014-01-12T08:10:52.397-06:00The Four Nutrients<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><i>The Four Nutriments</i></b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the early teachings of the Buddha is that we there
are four kinds of nutriments or sustenance: edible food, sense impressions,
intentional thoughts, and our consciousness. These life sustaining, life giving
and life defining nutriments are instrumental in the way we conceptualize and
live our lives. But the bottom line is, if we don't get a handle on these they
will drag us into more and more dukkha while implying and suggesting to us that
they offer the answer to ending our suffering. Why? Because hunger and craving
stand behind all four, because delusion is the result of buying into these as
good for us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the traditional ways of exploring these is through
similes in which each is made vivid and emphatic in an undeniable way. Take
some time with each and consider their role in your life. Are they sustaining
you in ways that are more helpful or harmful? Do you understand how they arises
in your life, how they can end, and how getting a handle on them leads to right
view? It takes time and a lot of chewing to digest these!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. Edible Food<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simile: Crossing the desert and finding themselves without
food, a couple eats their little child so they can reach their destination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Often, in our search for food and nourishment, literally and
figuratively, we destroy what is most dear to us.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Sense-Impression<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simile: A skinned cow, wherever she stands, will be
constantly attacked by the insects and other creatures living nearby.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like a skinned cow, we are helplessly exposed to the constant
excitation and irritation of our ever-changing sense-impressions, attacking us
from all sides, through our six senses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. Volitional Thought<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simile: We are like a man being dragged by two others into a
pit of glowing embers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The two dragging forces are man's karmic actions, good (but
still deluded) and evil. It is our karmic proclivities, our self-centered and
life-affirming volitions, our plans and ambitions, that drag us into that deep
pit filled with the glowing embers of intense suffering.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. Consciousness<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simile: Consciousness is like a criminal whose punishment is
to be pierced with three hundred spears three times a day.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Conscious awareness is the punitive result of past cravings
and delusions. It's sharp spears pierce our protective skin and lay us open to
the impact of the world's objects.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-76468559512967314102013-08-05T09:12:00.000-05:002013-08-05T09:12:44.920-05:00The Truth About Blame<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>It’s Always My Own Fault - There is Never Anyone To Blame But Me<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Slogan 12 of the
Lojong</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a great practice for ending suffering, ours and
everyone else’s.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Faulting and blaming others is, as we all know, easy and
convenient. But it is also seriously flawed as a way of life, and ultimately
counterproductive.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When things in our society aren’t the way we think they
should be, our first line of “reason” is to determine who is responsible, who’s
to blame. With little or no evidence to support us, we simply blame or accuse
another person or group for what we feel is wrong. At times it is the person or
group who is accusing us of exactly the same wrong-doing, but no matter. After
all, <i>we’re right</i>. Take religious or
nationalistic conflicts–both sides feel they are right and correct in blaming the other.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The flaw in this way of reasoning is the assumption that I
am always right; it’s the flaw that assures me others are to blame. When we
look closely, however, we observe that there is no right and wrong. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Similarly, when things in our personal lives aren’t the way
we think they should be, the first thing we do is to look for someone to blame.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What makes this such a dangerous and maladaptive way of
living is that it never works; blaming never solves the problem. Why? Because
blaming others never gets at the cause. And the cause is never external–the
cause of our suffering is always internal, always in the way we choose to
narrate the event.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What mindfulness is suggesting is that, as we go about our
lives the moment we sense fault or blame arising, we tell ourself to come to a
screeching halt. We look inward instead of outward and we notice that our
suffering is coming, not from what others are doing or the external situation,
but from how we have chosen to write the narrative about those people and
conditions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The Practice</span>:
Commit to make a concerted effort to paying attention to how blaming arises and
what patterns it takes. See what happens when you shift it to the inward
gaze of the Middle Path. Notice how your suffering weakens, and how other’s
suffering disappears as you see need in others rather than suffering. </div>
<div class="Arial10">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Two Renowned Tibetan Lamas on This Slogan<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Chogyam Trungpa's
Commentary</i>: "Drive all blames into one means that all problems and the
complications that exist around our practice, realization, and understanding
are not somebody else's fault. All the blame always starts with ourselves….The
intention of driving all blames into one is that otherwise you will not enter
the bodhisattva path. Therefore, you do not want to lay any emotional,
aggressive blame on anybody at all. So driving all blames into one begins with
that attitude."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Jamgon Kongtrul's
Commentary</i>: Whether you are physically ill, troubled in your mind, insulted
by others, or bothered by enemies and disputes, in short, whatever annoyance,
major and minor, comes up in your life or affairs, do not lay the blame on
anything else, thinking that such-and-such caused this or that problem. Rather,
you should consider: This mind grasps at a self where there is no self. From
time without beginning until now, it has, in following its own whims in <i>samsara</i>, perpetrated various nonvirtuous
actions. All the sufferings I now experience are the results of those actions.
No one else is to blame; this ego-cherishing attitude is to blame. I shall do
whatever I can to subdue it."</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-11794064332519589512013-07-17T05:50:00.000-05:002013-07-17T05:50:41.462-05:00See Everything As A Dream, Part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">See everything as a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">When
we sit quietly and meditate by watching our thoughts, rather than concentrating
on our breath, we see that everything appears very solid and substantive, real
and permanent. But when we look closely, we notice that, as vivid as our mind
seems to make things, it really is not so. Nothing is solid and happening, not
in the way we perceive it. Everything is, in fact, more illusion than a
reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Realizing
this, we work to see everything as a dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everything is always passing away. As soon as something
appears, in that same moment, it disappears. Things certainly do appear to be
here, but as we look more closely, it is less certain. The <i>me</i> that is here now may seem solid and substantive, but isn’t it
really different from the me that was here ten years ago, or ten months ago, or
ten weeks ago, or ten days ago, or ten hours ago, or ten minutes ago or ten
second ago, or ten moment ago, or even the me of an instant ago? We think of
ourselves as a permanent entity with changing characteristics–really; really.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The closer you look, the harder it seems to get to actually
see what is happening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we think about it, the world and us in it really are
more dreamlike than permanent. When we see things in this context, as an
illusion, things become less concrete, we tend to attach less, and our
suffering lightens. If we realize then that what we are seeing is more dream
than reality, we experience and easing of our discomfort with things; we become
less judgmental and we lighten up in the face of difficulties, not matter how
big or tough they seem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Practicing with slogan two: In addition to practicing with a
slogan as explained in the previous blog, try this: As people, places, things,
thoughts, emotions, experiences “arise” and “cease,” see if you can notice the
point when you appropriate them, the point at which you identify with them
making them and you solid and apparently permanent. Notice the “ceasing” part
to, how you let go of something as solid, autonomous and there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-84193296040327294692013-06-22T06:50:00.000-05:002013-06-22T06:50:06.646-05:00Learning Buddhism Through Slogans<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Practice with Slogans</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Slogan are a great learning and teaching devise, especially in Tibetan Buddhism. The Lojong, Atisha's 12th century teaching, is a systematically ordered series of 59
aphorisms, or slogans, arranged under seven headings to show us how to
transform our day-to-day difficulties into open, compassion, other-centered,
peaceful and clear hearts and minds.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This blog is an exploration of the first slogan, “<i>Train in the preliminaries</i>,” which has
four aspects, also known as the four reminders.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Maintain an awareness of the preciousness of
this life.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Always remember that while the time of death is
uncertain, death itself is certain for all of us.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Know that whatever you do–with body, speech or
mind–leaves a karmic imprint.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Remember that judging everything good or bad and
then wanting more of the stuff you like and less of the stuff you don’t like
will never make you happy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are online commentaries galore on the Lojong. Popular
now in book form are <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pema+chodron+lojong">those by Pema Chodron</a>.
Also, there’s an interesting <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Training-Compassion-Teachings-Practice-Lojong/dp/1611800404/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1371727490&sr=1-1&keywords=norman+fischer">Japanese
Soto Zen interpretation</a> of these slogans by Norman Fischer. The aim of this
blog and future blogs on the Lojong, is not to provide a commentary but rather
to present a few of the slogans as practice tools. In this blog, we will
explain why we start with these four and how to work with them. Also, we will
be taking aim at the “Yeah, I get it” phenomenon.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s start with the ‘Yeah, I get it” phenomenon. You’ve
already read the first slogan. If you’re like many of my students, you’ve put a
check mark next to it, said to yourself: “Yeah, I get it; life is precious” and
then you dismissed it as done. In classes, when I ask students to explain <i>why</i> life is precious, I get blank stares
or vague statements that really don’t address the question. When I pry,
students often seem, to their surprise, dumbfounded.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we are to become people of compassion, people in whom
peacefulness arises naturally, we must start with a realization that this human
life is precious. One very effective way to accomplish this is to practice with
the slogan. How? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I suggest you start my making the slogan physically present
all through your day. Put sticky notes on the dashboard of your car and the
corner of your desk at the office, on the bathroom mirror and the refrigerator
door. Wherever and everywhere. Make it your screen saver. Buy a composition book,
there are 25-30 lines on each page. Write the slogan once on each line. Do a
page a day until you finish the book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next, set an intention to contemplate the slogan everyday.
Sit in a comfortable quiet place, gently watch a handful of breaths, allowing yourself
to quiet, then begin thinking about the slogan.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Start with the broadest questions about its general meaning
and work toward tighter and more detailed questions, more narrowly focused
questions. Think hard and stay focused, but let you mind go wherever it needs
in this contemplation, as long as you don’t stray from the slogan. Establish
the slogan as the most important thing you could possibly consider in that
moment; keep delving into it. Question every thought, every phrase, parse each
word that arises. Also, ask yourself how you would explain this to a 10-year
old, then rehearse (actually say it out loud so you can hear yourself!)
explaining it to that youngster. Do the same with a peer who isn’t likely to
understand it easily. Rehearse. Finally, rehearse how you might explain this is
a dying parent. Each of these daily sessions should be only about 5 minutes, 10
at absolute max. Doing this daily will allow you to slowly delve deeper and
deeper into its meaning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sometimes, and you can be anywhere, just have the slogan to
flood over you. Encourage and allow it to arise from deep inside you when you
are showering, dressing, eating, exercising, working, relaxing, getting ready
for bed. Gently play with it whenever it arises, then let it drift off. Eventually,
it will just become a part of you, resetting your default intention to a place
from which compassion arises without hesitation and peacefulness ensues
whatever the conditions.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The goal is to have these slogans as ingrained as the ones
we grew up with, like “A diamond is forever” and “They’re Gr-r-r-eat” and “I’ve
fallen and I can’t get up” and “The best part of waking up, is….</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another view of how to practice with these slogan comes from
Zen Roshi Norman Fischer:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The best way to develop a mind-training slogan is to work
with it initially on your meditation cushion. The technique is simple enough:
sitting calmly with breath and body awareness, simply repeat the slogan
silently to yourself again and again, reflect lightly on it, breathe it in with
the inhale, out with the exhale.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The point is not to sit and think about the slogan as much
as to develop it as an almost physical object, a feeling in your belly or
heart.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Doing this repeatedly will fix it in your mind at a level
deeper than is possible with ordinary distracted thinking. After this initial
fixing of the slogan in the mind, you can think about it more, journal about
it, talk about it with friends, write it down, repeat it to yourself—maybe when
you are walking or driving, or any time you remember to do it—committing
yourself to holding it in your mind during the day as often as you can. You can
post it on your refrigerator; float it across your computer screen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When you suddenly notice you have forgotten it and your mind
is muffled with anxiety or worried rumination, use the very moment of
forgetting as a cue to remembering rather than as a chance for self-judgment.
This is, after all, mind training. Of course you are going to forget! But
noticing that you forgot is already remembering. Mind training requires
commitment, repetition, and lots of patience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">If you practice with a slogan in this way, soon it will pop
into your mind unbidden at various times during the day. Hundreds of times a
day instances will arise that seem germane to the slogan you are working with.
In this way, you can practice a slogan until it becomes part of your mind—your
own thought, a theme for daily living. –<br />
<br />
Fischer, Norman. <i>Training in Compassion: Zen Teachings on the
Practice of Lojong</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There isn’t one correct way to work with a slogan, but with
a little practice and experimentation, you will find the ways that work for you
to make the slogan yours. Just remember, it takes patience and commitment to
make these slogans <i>ours</i>, to make them
work for us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The important thing about the preliminaries is that they
nurture a very special attitude toward life, one which makes us realize the
importance of being here and motivates us to act for the long term benefit of
all beings. We start by realizing the preciousness and importance of each
moment, it’s impermanence making it so valuable, and from there we move to
resetting our intentions so that our karmic thrust leads us more and more
toward the peacefulness that arises from helping others rather than being
self-serving, which always leads to some level of discomfort. Finally, we
conclude from this short sequence of practice that it is being of benefit to
others that really makes us wholesome and happy, not acquiring more.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A few weeks, or months, or lifetimes on these four and we
will be ready for the second slogan!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-63793993983074700112013-04-14T09:39:00.002-05:002013-04-14T09:39:19.867-05:00The Two Truths<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The Two Truth is on the short list of most important Buddhist concepts. This is material to chew on for a lifetime of practice, not something we get on a first or even second or third read through.<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 2px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>The Two Truths</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 2px; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 2px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>Excerpted from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 2px; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The theory of the two truths is the heart of the Buddha's philosophy. It serves as the mirror reflecting the core message of the Buddha's teachings and the massive philosophical literature it inspired. At the heart of the theory of the two truths is the Buddha's ever poignant existential (based on experience) and soteriological (salvation) concerns about the reality of things and of life. Nirvaṇa, ultimate freedom from the suffering conditioned by desires, is only ever achieved, according to the theory of the two truths, from a correct understanding of two truths. Knowledge of the conventional truth informs us how things are conventionally, and thus grounds our epistemic (the nature and scope of knowledge) practice in its proper linguistic and conceptual framework. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Knowledge of the ultimate truth informs us of how things really are ultimately, and so takes our minds beyond the bounds of conceptual and linguistic conventions.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In India the theory of the two truths the Buddha had explained, of course without much elaboration, stimulated rich philosophical exchanges amongst the Buddhist philosophers and practitioners. The transformation of the two truths theory from a simple to a complex system of thought with highly sophisticated concepts is perhaps the most significant contribution resulting from the schisms the Buddhism experienced after the Buddha passed away (ca. 380 BCE). Various schools with varying interpretations of the Buddha's words soon appeared in Buddhism, which resulted in rich and vibrant philosophical and hermeutic (the way we study written texts) atmosphere.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After the Buddha the philosopher who broke new ground on the theory of the two truths in the Madhyamaka system is a South Indian monk, Nāgārjuna (ca. 100 BCE–100 CE). Nāgārjuna saw himself as propagating the dharma taught by the Buddha, which he says is precisely based on the theory of the two truths: a truth of mundane conventions and a truth of the ultimate. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He saw the theory of the two truths as constituting the Buddha's core teaching and his philosophy. Nāgārjuna maintains that those who do not understand the distinction between these two truths would fail to understand the Buddha's teaching. This is so, for Nāgārjuna, because (1) without relying on the conventional truth, the meaning of the ultimate cannot be explained, and (2) without understanding the meaning of the ultimate, nirvāṇa is not achieved.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nāgārjuna's theory of the two truths is fundamentally different from all theories of truth in other Indian philosophies. Hindu philosophers and other Buddhist sects all advocate a foundationalism of some kind according to which ultimate reality is taken to be the “substantive reality” or foundation upon which stands the entire edifice of the conventional ontological structures where the ultimate reality is posited as immutable, fixed, irreducible and independent of any interpretative conventions. That is so, even though the conventional structure that stands upon it constantly changes and transforms. [This, of course, contradicts the most fundamental teaching of the Buddha, that all things are impermanent, and is, obviously, illogical, as Nagarjuna repeatedly explains in his writings.]</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nāgārjuna's central argument to support his radical non-foundationalist theory of the two truths draws upon an understanding of conventional truth as tied to dependently arisen phenomena, and ultimate truth as tied to emptiness of the intrinsic nature.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since the former and the latter are coconstitutive of each other, in that each entails the other, ultimate reality is tied to being conventionally real. Nāgārjuna advances important arguments justifying the correlation between the conventional truth vis-à-vis dependent arising, and emptiness vis-à-vis ultimate truth. These arguments bring home their epistemological and ontological correlations.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">He argues that wherever applies emptiness as the ultimate truth, there applies the causal efficacy of the conventional truth and wherever emptiness does not apply as the ultimate truth, there does not apply the causal efficacy of the conventional truth.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">According to Nāgārjuna, ultimate truth's being empty of any intrinsic reality affords conventional truth its causal efficacy since being ultimately empty is identical to being causally produced, conventionally. This must be so since, for Nāgārjuna, “there is no thing that is not dependently arisen; therefore, there is no such thing that is not empty.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Why is this so important? Because, only if we get it that things really aren’t what they appear to be, can we stop our grasping and clinging and attaching and end our suffering. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 16px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
</div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-25344035196190898252013-04-02T07:14:00.001-05:002013-04-02T07:14:12.262-05:00Stubbornness and Non-Stubborness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>When Outcomes Aren’t Important<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When winning isn’t important, when we no longer need to
protect and defend our understandings and ideas and their rightness, when Self
is weakened and we stop believing our fictions, non-stubbornness arises.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Buddhist principle of non-stubbornness makes winning
unimportant, makes getting our way unimportant, makes life about practice <i>not</i> outcomes. Greed loses its grip and
process, not outcomes, becomes important.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The practice of non-stubbornness is transformational. It
teaches us to avoid our self-centeredness and gives us the chance to build
trusting, dependable, longterm spiritually based relationships. It moves us
from silence or attack mode to reconciliation. It moves us from a stubborn
preoccupation with the problem to communication aimed at resolution, without
judging or defending, and without fist pounding or foot stomping. It moves us
from focusing on the issue to focusing on learning and spiritual development.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Non-stubbornness resolves conflict by leading us to
understand that, in any situation, both parties did their best. Perhaps not
wisely, but they did, in that moment, with their karma, their understandings
and the conditions as they saw them in that moment, they did the best they
could. Non-stubbornness leads us to understand this deeply enough to shift our
focus from getting our way, from winning, to a focus on empathy and compassion
and patience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stubbornness is about greed and arrogance: What’s in it for me?
When we practice with non-stubbornness can use the antidotes for these:
generosity and humility and modesty. The outcome is not the issue. You do your
best, and that is enough. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stubbornness takes many forms. For example, there’s the
stubbornness of an unrelenting 11-year old in combat with his mother over what
he should eat for dinner. Herein we see stubbornness as a refusal to change
one’s opinion or position. The more we challenge the child, the more dogged the
insistence. “No I won’t, and you can’t make me” becomes the cry. As we grow the
stubbornness become more subtle and complex, less obvious, but no less harmful.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What we see from this example is that, at its core,
stubbornness is an entrenched resistance to change, even though it is
maladaptive and we know it. Resisting change, resisting the basic nature of the
universe, dooms us to a life of suffering. Fearing change, craving permanence,
dooms us to unending dukkha.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contrary to what we are often told, stubbornness is never
admirable. Why? Because it makes the basic nature of things, which is change,
into a personal problem. Stubbornnness, this overwhelming resistance to change
that we all share, that prevents us from seeing clearly and living well, is at
the heart of our problem with the universe.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
With a concerted practice of non-stubbornness, we search for
resolution to our fears and frustrations over change. We stop blocking the
emergence of the next moment; instead, we settle comfortably into the newness
in front of us. We stop trying to make the world into our image and respond to
it as it genuinely is–every changing and impermanent. Seen in this context, the
practice of non-stubbornness allows us to de-escalate our feelings and
resistance; the practice of non-stubbornness allows us to see more clearly how
to do our best.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The result: a world with which we are at ease–a world with
which we cooperate and which cooperates with us to create a happy healthy life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-26658613047722045552013-03-11T09:59:00.003-05:002013-03-11T09:59:20.271-05:00Reconciliation - The Buddhist Answer to Conflict<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Reconciliation Notes<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Internal Reconciliation<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those who want to live peaceful and happy lives,
reconciliation, meditation suggests, is the answer. When we are reconciled to
what really is happening, instead of fabricating stories about what we think should
be happening, we act in ways that build peace and confidence instead of anxiety
and anger.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Consider this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It only takes
one for reconciliation.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And consider this:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Every
situation is reconcilable.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Many of the fundamental “truths” we learn from meditation,
such as impermanence and not-self, can be hard to reconcile ourselves with. So
hard, in fact, that we dream of things that are permanent and substantial in an
attempt to escape the inescapable conditions of our life. But such imaginings
pull us away from the basic facts of our condition: we are impermanent beings, predisposed
to suffering, conditioned by the world in which we live.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is why the idea of reconciliation is so powerful.
Reconciliation isn’t about overcoming our basic nature; it is about reconciling
us to the way the world really is. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reconciliation is where I have come to see that yes, this is
what is happening, that these are just the conditions of the world as I
perceive it in this moment, and that <i>if I
reconcile, neither attaching nor running</i>, then peace arises. Reconciliation
is when I no longer pick or choose, as Sengcan writes, when I no longer give my
amygdala control of my mind, allowing it to jerk me around emotionally with its
primitive assignments of affinities and aversions to everything.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sitting in meditation, sitting with the present moment, just
as it is, we are reconciled and at home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Reconciliation matters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">because the consequence of <i>not</i>
reconciling is unending suffering.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reconciliation is an internal event, something that comes
from within us. As such it is always available to us. And so is the peace and
well-being that arises from it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>External Reconciliation<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It is one thing to reconcile oneself to what is happening in
one’s own life–that’s internal reconciliation. It is, as we all know, wholly
another thing to reconcile one’s differences with another person, which is
external reconciliation. When there are differences, we start by attempting to
find a mutual reconciliation. (If that doesn’t work, we can, of course, do it
alone.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
(1) Agreeing to disagree is not a solution. It moves nothing
forward and entrenches us in the validity of our story. (2) Compromising, which
is what nations do when they create treaties and accords, where we get as much
of what we wanted as circumstances will allow after battling it out, is not a
solution either, for it leaves us unsettled and unsatisfied and often in a
worse place than we started. (3) Just capitulating to another’s demands isn’t a
solution either, for it leaves us with frustration and residual anger and
reinforces ignorance rather than wisdom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, if we don’t want to suffer, we need to learn to
reconcile our differences with others. And this is complicated: the closer we
are to the other person and to the issue, the more difficult it is to see
clearly.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To reconcile our differences with another person, <i>when there is a disagreement</i>, we must
both rewrite the story in a way that leaves us both in harmony, both peaceful
with the conclusion, both feeling amicable and at ease. Reconciliation is never
about winning. It is, however, about trust.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Genuine reconciliation cannot be based simply on the desire
for harmony. Ideally, it requires a mutual understanding of what actions served
to create the disharmony, and a promise to try to avoid those actions in the
future. This in turn requires a clearly articulated agreement about–and
commitment to–mutual standards of right and wrong. At its heart, reconciliation
distinguishes, for both parties, between right and wrong ways of handling differences.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We need right and wrong, but we also need to be careful how
we use them. We need not to be capricious in our use of them, nor hypocritical.
The fact that all phenomena are empty doesn’t mean that there is no right and
wrong. We don't want to use the rhetoric of non-duality and non-attachment to
excuse genuinely harmful behavior–leaving victims hopelessly adrift, with no
commonly accepted standards on which to base redress through reconciliation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Reconciliation is not forgiveness. Forgiveness is about
blame, makes me the ultimate judge; forgiveness is about winning. Forgiveness
is just one part rewriting a story to get our own way.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The solution lies not in abandoning right and wrong, but in
learning how to use them wisely. Here’s a checklist of questions for this: </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Perceived Wrongdoings<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>When a perceived
wrongdoing is involved</i>, we need to ask ourselves before confronting the
other person:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Am I seeing clearly what has happened?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Am I motivated by kindness and compassion to reconcile,
rather than a self-centered or self-serving need?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Really, am I trying to reconcile or trying to win, to get my
way?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Am I sincere and clear on our mutual standards?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Can my words be believed?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ideally, we should be determined to speak only words that
are true, timely, gentle, to the point, and prompted by kindness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our motivation should be compassion, consideration for the
welfare of all parties involved, and the desire to see the wrongdoing end.
There should be an overriding desire to hold to principles of propriety.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When there is conflict, we should employ right speech and
engage in the honest, responsible self-reflection. In this way, standards of
right and wrong behavior, instead of being oppressive or petty, engender deep
and long-lasting trust. In addition to creating the external harmony, this
process of reconciliation also becomes an opportunity for inner growth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our goal should be always be willing to exercise the honesty
and restraint that reconciliation requires. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 15.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<i>Disagreements<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When there is a simple disagreement about an event, time or
place, for example, reconciliation is generally clearer than when “wrong doing”
is involved. Wrongdoing is a reflection of our very strong attachments to
beliefs and values; on the other hand, disagreements are less weighty conflicting
stories.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because all stories are fictions, insisting on one’s story
over another’s story is arrogance, and arrogance is a no-no.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, this would become nihilistic if there were no
evaluative criteria. That criterion is appropriateness (the neutral word for
the fundamental understanding of right and wrong, good and bad, as it arises
from meditation and interconnectedness). Appropriateness is obvious if one is
mindful and aware; it is the response that arises from wisdom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Haven’t realized wisdom yet–fake it!</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-36753890089471956922013-02-21T15:02:00.002-06:002013-02-21T15:02:33.050-06:00Understanding Anger<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
These are part one of the Retreat Notes from our recent Anger and Reconciliation Retreat</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<b>Anger, from the Buddhist Perspective<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Whatever my virtuous deeds may be,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Venerating Buddhas, generosity and so on,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Amassed over a thousands eons–<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>All are destroyed in a moment of anger.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>–</i>Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva, Chapter Six<i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In this
retreat we will<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo1; text-align: center; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Examine how we create anger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Learn how to stop creating it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Practice burning off old habitual anger responses<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In this
retreat we will<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: center; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Develop patience and a patient mind as the antidote
to anger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: center; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Explore and practice reconciliation as the primary
methodology for living without anger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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</v:line><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Mild Irritation-----------------------------------------Rage
and Wrath</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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From mild irritation to rage and wrath, anger pervades our
lives. Even when we are unaware of it, anger lurks in the background causing us
to run the emotional gamut from unbalanced, unsettled, and uneasy to
full-throttle fury.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Anger arises when irritation, annoyance, disapproval, and so
forth suddenly burst into an action of body, speech and or mind in respond to
that false and fictitious feeling.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>There is no evil as harmful as anger,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>No discipline as effective as patience,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Thus by all possible means I should<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Cultivate patience with intensity<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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(In each and every
single moment, with each and every single breath)</div>
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<br /></div>
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Most important, we will learn to reconcile ourselves to our
lives, here now, as they are, so that we live patiently, calmly and with a warm
open heart instead of angry minds. And we will learn to use reconciliation when
we have differences with other or when a genuine wrong-doing occurs.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Anger<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<i>Key Buddhist
Understandings:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Anger arises from the way an untrained mind works;
responding spontaneously and without consideration to the assigned affinities
and aversion of the second aggregate.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Nothing external, no one and nothing can make you angry. You
make yourself angry but concocting an anger story in response to a sense
contact.</div>
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<br /></div>
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There is a single source for all our anger: not getting what
we want. And we are always trying to get more of what we like and want and
think we should have, and get less of what we don’t like, want, or think we
should have. And this is the origin of anger. Always wanting things to be other
than what they are.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Anger is not stored, it cannot be vented. It must be created
and recreated from moment to moment. Neuroscience tells us that the maximum we
hold onto our anger is 3 minutes without rewriting and exaggerating the story.
Usually it is only a fraction of a second.</div>
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<br /></div>
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To understand this process, we need to look at the 5
aggregates and the 12 links (below). As we see, anger arises from “feeling,”
the affinities and aversions that cause us to want more in a way that cannot
ever be satisfied, and from ignorance which leads to our stories, which cause
us to consolidate new behaviors along old greedy and angry lines.</div>
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<br /></div>
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That’s the bad news: anger is pretty much always with us.
See it, hear it, taste it, touch it, smell it, think it, and we’re, at least on
some level, annoyed. But it is also the good news: knowing this, we can teach
ourselves how not to be angry. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Bullets About Anger<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->False: There is nothing you can do about anger.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->False: Anger is part of the human condition,
without it there would be no happiness.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->False: Anger is something we must learn to
manage.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->False: There is good anger and righteous anger,
as the early.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->False: Anger cannot be totally eradicated.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Once we see that cooperation is the fundamental
nature of the universe and everything it in, we see anger as an aberration.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->In Buddhism, anger is seen less as a painful
emotion and more as an unwholesome mindstate, a vice.</div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">3.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Anger arises from not seeing our connectedness
to everything.</span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Our biggest decision in life, according to
Shantideva, is to realize that anger is my real and worst enemy.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Once we see that anger always harms, its
opposite needs to become our most important practice.</div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->When I eliminate not-wanting, I eliminate anger.</div>
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7.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Why do we prefer anger to patience, generosity,
modest and humility?</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Why be unhappy about something<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>If you can do something about it?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>If nothing can be done,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>What does being unhappy help?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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It is much easier to suffer than to be happy, as the causes
of suffering are much more plentiful, until you realize that they can all be
converted into opportunities for patience and happiness! Ultimately, they will
no longer be there, and will no longer be needed. Patience and happiness will
arise from within, not from externals.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Moving from Anger to Patience and Peace, The Practices<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The absolute first step, from a Buddhist
perspective, to addressing anger is to realize (not just learn or understand)
that anger only begets anger; it is bad, wrong, fundamentally unwholesome in
the worse of ways.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Defilement to antidote: replace anger with
patience, generosity will also work.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Ask what was it about the situation that made
you angry. The answer will always be: you didn’t get something you wanted. Then
ask: “What was the something.” Look at your answer. Is it realistic or a bit
silly? Being it will never be realistic or even sensible, then laugh at it and
let it go.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Look at the anger and say to yourself: “This is
not me, this is not mine” exercise. Why, because when you don’t identify with
the anger, it dissolves.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Notice: “There is anger.” Observe it: watch how
it starts, how it changes from mental to physical and back, and at each
juncture in the observation, let go and look at the next aspect. This will melt
away the anger.</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Deconstruct the anger:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Notice</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Focus</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Story</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Exaggeration</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Identification and Appropriation</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Do L-e-e-e-t-t G-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o ten times. It
will send a mind body signal through the brain stem to the amygdala to reduce
the intensity of the response.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Chant the metta sutra (below)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Realize that our inability to always get our way
is the source of anger. Examine that thought. What is so wrong with my life and
my family and the world that I am never satisfied, always demanding more/better? Consider that here now, just as it is,
is as perfect as it could possibly be.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Exercise
moral discipline–don’t act out on the anger when you notice it: don’t yell,
don’t drive aggressively when you’re upset.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Weak
as they are, distraction and even suppression may help. Really furious, out of
control, leave…go see a movie; even better, go buy your wife a big present.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->12.<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Read:
Chapter Six, <i>The Way of the Bodhisattva</i>
by Shantideva (Padmakara Translation Group)</div>
<span style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="ALL" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
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<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
<b>Metta Chant<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be free from anger and hatred.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be free from greed and selfishness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be free from fears and anxiety.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be free from pain and suffering.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be free from ignorance and delusion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be free from negative states of mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I be peaceful and happy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May I experience peace and tranquility of body and mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be free from anger and hatred.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be free from greed and selfishness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be free from fears and anxiety.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be free from pain and suffering.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be free from ignorance and delusion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be free from negative states of mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me be peaceful and happy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.25in;">
May those whom I love, those whom I like, those who have
angered or done harm to me experience peace and tranquility of body and mind. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be free from anger and hatred.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be free from greed and selfishness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be free from fears and anxiety.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be free from all pain and suffering.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be free from ignorance and delusion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be free from negative states of mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings be peaceful and happy.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
May all beings experience peace and tranquility of body and
mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-81011980026066677082013-01-20T10:14:00.004-06:002013-01-20T10:14:51.790-06:00Using Intention to Center Ourselves<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Centering
Ourselves Through Recitation and Chanting<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When
we concoct stories* about what is happening, we take remembrances–pieces of
previous meanings and value that we had assigned to stuff under similar
circumstances–and form them into a story about what is happening now. This
requires us to make what is happening now consistent with what we already know.
Making the world consistent in this way means we create models, or modules, or
contexts, that can be used to frame the story in a consistent way. These
modules are the overarching intentions we have for viewing the world; they are
our strongly help beliefs and values, norms and mores in sociological jargon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If
we want to move to the Middle Path, to live in peace and harmony with ourselves
and our world, we need modules that point us in that direction. Metta prayers,
chants and recitations are some of the most traditional and effective ways we have
to do this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Here’s
a prayer, a short recitation, and a couple of chants that, when practiced
regularly, will become the dominant perspective from which you see the world,
burning off our old karmic leanings toward greed and anger and anxiety and
establishing a mind of peacefulness and caring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: center; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Shantideva's Prayer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May all beings
everywhere <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Plagued by sufferings of
body and mind <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Obtain an ocean of
happiness and joy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> By virtue of my merits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May no living creature
suffer,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> Commit evil, or ever
fall ill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> May no one be afraid or
belittled, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">With a mind weighed down
by depression.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May the blind see forms<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> And the deaf hear
sounds,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> May those whose bodies
are worn with toil <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Be restored on finding
repose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May the naked find
clothing, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">The hungry find food; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May the thirsty find
water <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And delicious drinks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May the poor find
wealth, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Those weak with sorrow
find joy;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> May the forlorn find
hope, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Constant happiness, and
prosperity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May there be timely
rains <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And bountiful harvests; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May all medicines be
effective<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> And wholesome prayers
bear fruit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May all who are sick and
ill <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Quickly be freed from
their ailments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Whatever diseases there
are in the world,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> May they never occur
again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May the frightened cease
to be afraid <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And those bound be
freed; <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">May the powerless find
power, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">And may people think of
benefiting each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For as long as time and
space remains, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For as long as sentient
beings remain, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Until then may I too
remain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> To dispel the miseries
of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Reciting
this as a part of one’s morning practice, several times a week if not every
day, sets a clear and committed intention within us to reconceptualize the way
we see the world from one of greed, anger and delusion to one of patience,
compassion, and generosity. It sets a clear intention to reconsolidate our
stories in ways that we move from a life of self-centeredness to a life of
other-centeredness. It resets our intention to seek the well-being of others in
everything we do, which lowers our blood pressure, coordinates our cardiac and
respiratory systems, and makes us calm, clear-seeing loving people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Short Recitation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">A
shorter prayer, which can be recited frequently during the day, whenever you
feel any level of anguish from mild irritation to all-out anger, is the final
verse of the prayer. Recited to yourself a five or ten times can quickly
recenter you in altruism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For as long as time and space
remains, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">For as long as sentient
beings remain, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Until then may I too
remain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"> To dispel the miseries
of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">Chant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">You
can use either of the following chants as an overarching intention resetting
tool, simply by chanting it over and over for 5 minutes a day once or twice a
day, or for 10 or 15 seconds whenever angst arises:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I vow–with each and every act of body, speech and
mind–to work solely for the benefit and well-being of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I
vow to work tirelessly for the benefit of all sentient beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Much
metta always!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Baskerville SemiBold"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">* Concoctions, or stories, are the
fourth of the five aggregates, often labeled volitional formations.</span></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-23266502968266289062013-01-03T08:22:00.000-06:002013-01-03T08:22:28.381-06:00Know Peacefulness by Becoming the Smallest Person in the Room<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>I vow to be he smallest person in the room.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Humility and modesty are two on the short list of wholesome
mindstates observed by Asanga, the 1<sup>st</sup> century monk who watched his
mind in meditation and then codified the workings into a book, the <i>Abhidharma Samuccaya</i>. Put another way,
if you want to be peaceful, simply “make yourself the smallest person in the
room,” as my teacher Master Ji Ru says.</div>
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This month, I will be blogging about three vows for the new
year. “I vow to be the smallest person in the room” is the first vow; it is a
vow to make humility and modesty our baseline. For a vow to be effective, we
need to consider its implications intellectually, frequently chant it so it
just comes to mind spontaneously to remind us of our intention to be this way,
and to make a concerted effort to practice it, especially under difficult
circumstances.</div>
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Let’s start with some basic definitions, then consider a few
short exerpts about humility and modesty, and then let’s look at how to apply
and practice these in our everyday lives. First, the definitions:</div>
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<i>Humility</i> is to
depart from a position of gentle, non-assertiveness. It is a behavior or
attitude or spirit that wholly lacks arrogance and conceit or any sense of
self-centeredness or self-cherishing. It is being unassuming without being
proud or feeling inferior. It applies to all that we do, say and think.</div>
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<i>Modesty</i> is to
depart from a disinclination to call attention to ourself. Modesty involves
observing proprieties, especially in speech, dress and comportment. It is avoid
extremes through understatement in everything one has and does materially and
spiritually.</div>
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Now some quotes:</div>
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Humility</div>
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Do
not find fault with others. If they behave wrongly, there is no need to make
yourself suffer.</div>
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<i>–Ajahn Chah (20<sup>th</sup>-Century Thai
monk)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Humility
and Patience</div>
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I
think that there is a very close connection between humility and patience.
Humility involves having the capacity to take a more confrontational stance,
having the capacity to retaliate if you wish, yet deliberately deciding not to
do so. That is what I would call genuine humility.</div>
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I
think that true patience has a component or element of self-discipline and
restraint--the realization that you could have acted otherwise, you could have
adopted a more aggressive approach, but decided not to do so.</div>
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On
the other hand, being forced to adopt a certain passive response out of a
feeling of helplessness or incapacitation--that I wouldn't call genuine
humility. That may be a kind of meekness, but it isn't genuine patience or humility. </div>
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<i>–His Holiness The Dalai Lama<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Real
Humility Is Genuineness</div>
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Humility,
very simply, is the absence of arrogance. Where there is no arrogance, you
relate with your world as an eye-level situation, without one-upmanship.
Because of that, there can be a genuine interchange. Nobody is using their
message to put anybody else down, and nobody has to come down or up to the
other person’s level. Everything is eye-level.</div>
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Humility
in the Shambala tradition also involves some kind of playfulness, which is a
sense of hum…. In most religious traditions, you feel humble because of a fear
of punishment, pain, and sin. In the Shambala world you feel full of it. You
feel healthy and good. In fact, you feel proud. Therefore, you feel humility.
That’s one of the Shambala contradictions or, we could say, dichotomies. Real
humility is genuineness.</div>
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<i>–Chogyam Trungpa<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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And finally, practicing with humility and modesty,
practicing being the smallest person in the room, requires thinking about these
wholesome mindstates and then acting from them.</div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]-->Behave without arrogance, conceit and other self-centered
tendencies such as jealousy, envy and an impulse to show off. Behave in ways
that reduce one’s sense of self-importance and that give no-fear by their very
nature. (The giving of no-fear is one of the most important practices of
generosity.)</div>
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<i>Remember
and Watch Out for The Three Conceits</i>: I am better than you; I am equal to
you; I am less than you.</div>
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Conceit is prone to arise when one
is praised for some particular work or mental quality, usually by others but
sometimes by self. Within limits praise from a knowledgeable person can be
encouraging without becoming a defilement. The trouble is that too much praise,
particularly if it borders on flattery, makes us proud and arrogant. The ego
sticks out its chest and feels two inches taller; it has a delicious feeling of
security and believes itself to be invulnerable!</div>
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This is the nasty sort of pride
that the ancient Greeks called <i>hubris</i>;
it was looked upon as an insult to the gods, and when the Olympians found a man
suffering from it they unloosed Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, who brought
him to death or destruction. I am not suggesting we kill everyone who feels
proud, but just that we watch ourselves carefully so we can stay humble and
modest without pride overriding those wholesome mindstates, which is pride’s
tendency.</div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]-->Respect others by having a compassionate
interest in them, without a desire to please or to impress. This allows us to
do what is appropriate without distortion or suffering. It also allows us to
see that right speech, which is grounded in compassion, often leads us to be
silent.</div>
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</span></span><!--[endif]-->Relate to others without the need to make your
understandings and opinions right and heard, protected or defended. Listen
without the need to express and without the need to assert or protect and
defend your understandings or opinions. The point of listening is not to
express what we already know; that’s conceit. Ultimately, humility and modesty
are teaching us not to process everything from a position of I-me-my-mine. </div>
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Modesty and humility allow us to walk through life calmly
and peacefully, doing what is needed, reasonable and appropriate with
discomfort or stress.</div>
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To make these virtues, these positive mindstates, into our
default setting so they arise naturally without us having to activate them in
the face of pride or conceit, in the face of self-deprecation or
self-aggrandizement, we need to flood our mind with a commitment to humility
and modesty. The easiest way to initiate this is through recitation, or
chanting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit quietly for a minute or two,
relaxing your body and mindfully watching your breath. Take long slow deep
breaths. Then repeat, over and over, either out loud to yourself: <i>In
each and every moment, I vow to be the smallest person in the room</i>. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Do this once or twice a day, for several weeks, until you
sense that humility and modesty are arising naturally in you at times when you
might otherwise have become angry or arrogant or wanting your way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then make this an occasional practice. Perhaps chant it in
the car for a couple of minutes to keep it fresh in your mind, or when you’re
showering or brushing your teeth; anytime you are alone and not doing anything
that requires much attention, just recite “<i>I
vow to be the smallest person in the room</i>” a few times.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-86792703112794294922012-12-26T07:17:00.001-06:002012-12-26T07:17:13.107-06:00Making It A Thankful New year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Think “Thank You”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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This is the time of year when we traditionally think “Thank
you.” Often, though not exclusively, these <i>thank
you’s</i> are for the material things we have gained. But there is a
traditional kindness chant that can extend our <i>thank you’s</i> in profound ways, extend our <i>thank you’s</i> so that we ourselves, those around us, and the world in
which we live feel our <i>thank you’s</i> in
each and every moment.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For this practice to be effective, we must first believe
that the chant is true and then chant it often enough so that it arises
spontaneously when unwholesome impulses and temptations arise as well as when
wholesome and beneficial events and conditions arise.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If we chant it enough times, it will arise spontaneously and
seemingly of its own accord. But first we need to develop an airtight logical
explanation for the chant. Actually, several lines of reasoning is better.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Here’s the chant:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Each and
every living being is supreme kind to me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This will only work if you believe it. No exceptions. This
isn’t about an act being kind or not, it is about our perspective on that act.
If someone gives me something I want, I can see it as kind in that it gives me
the opportunity to be grateful and generous in receiving it. If someone does
something mean to me, I can see it as kind in that it gives me the opportunity
to be patient and to see beyond the superficiality of the act to the underlying
suffering that motivated the person to act in that way.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contemplating this, we discover several lines of reasoning
we can use. One, regardless of what someone does to me, I can consider it kind
because it is an opportunity for me to strengthen my practice and grow
spiritually. If someone does something nasty to me, for example, I can see it
as kind because it gives me an opportunity to practice patience. If someone
does something particularly nice to me, I can see it as a kindness because it
gives me the opportunity to practice humility and modesty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A second line of reasoning suggests that our basic nature,
everything that we think, say and do, is an attempt to end some level of
suffering we perceive in ourselves. Understanding that everything we do is
about ending some level of discomfort or suffering in us, we soon come to
realize that everything everyone does is an act to end their suffering–not necessarily
wise or well-reasoned–but an attempt to end their suffering nonetheless.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If all that “they” are doing is attempting to end their
suffering, why would I view this as anything but an opportunity for me to
practice compassion toward them. Nothing else would seem reasonable. This
doesn’t mean I necessarily condone the act, just that my perspective is to see
that they are trying, even if unwisely, trying through what they have done to
relieve suffering and so it is kind insofar as it allow me to be compassionate
under duress.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On a deeply spiritual level, being everything is inherently
empty of meaning and value from its own side, I get to decide whether something
done to me is good or bad by the way I choose to perceive it. Therfore, if I
get to define “duress” in my life, then why don’t I stopped defining things as
stressful find another perspective that makes them all as kindnesses? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Believing this chant gives me an outlook that prevents me
from getting anxious or angry, fearful or threatened. And that outlook is the
framework that my mind can use to stay stable in the face of difficulties, even
very great difficulties.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If I can know deeply and understand the chant <i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Each and every living being is supreme kind to me</span></i>,
my intention in each moment will have me do the very best I can with the
conditions in front of me. Knowing that I always do the very best I can with
what’s happening, I can remain calm with any event or outcome. I can stay
positive and without recrimination and guilt when the outcome is other than
anticipated. If the outcomes aren’t appropriate, then I can course correct,
finding better and new strategies for dealing with the same or similar
situations in the future. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Realizing this, that I had, and do always do my best, I
remain patient, compassionate and generous, to myself and others. My self-image
stays clean and clear and positive without arrogance or conceit. Further, when
I generalize this to all other beings, when I realize that no matter how
unreasonable or terribly someone may act, they are doing the best they can, my
intention will reset me to being kind, patient and compassionate and generous.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Assuming I believe this chant, then I will interpret and
filter new information from my senses though intentional structures that lead
me to positive wholesome thoughts, speech and action. In fact, they lead me to
see the world as a kind place, supportive of me who is making his best effort.
The more I practice, the more grateful I become, the more thankful I am for
being here, now, connected to everyone and everything.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When I realize that each and every living being is supremely
kind to me, I become one with the cooperative underpinnings of the universe. I
have no regrets. I have nothing but <i>thank
you’s</i>. And the world has nothing but <i>thank
you’s</i>.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For all of your readership, practice, and support this year, a deep bow of gratitude and a thank you.</div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-68047675075742663562012-12-11T18:11:00.001-06:002012-12-11T18:11:23.209-06:00No Regrets, Part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Living with No Regrets, Final Part of the Series</b></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>I have no regrets and the world has no regrets.</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is the third in an ongoing series</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>From part two of this series: First, we learn to understand that the information our mind is sending us is false and foolish, mostly pre-cognitive nonsense. Second, we learn to act in ways that make us mindful and aware instead of reflexive and reactive. And third, we commit ourselves to a regular meditation practice so that we can off-load four millions years of false stories (</i></span><span style="font-size: 10px; letter-spacing: 0px;">sankharas</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>) that are driving us and the world to regret.</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">First, we learn to understand that the information our mind is sending us is false and foolish, mostly pre-cognitive impressions. Second, we learn to act in ways that make us mindful and aware instead of reflexive and reactive. And third, we commit ourselves to a regular meditation practice so that we can off-load four millions years of false stories (<i>sankharas</i>) that are driving us and the world to regret.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our first step to a life without regrets is to not believe the story I tell myself that if I get more of those things that my amygdala likes and less of those it doesn’t like, I will be happy and all will be well in the world. Especially since we can readily see that (1) this doesn’t work–if it did, we’d already have succeeded, and (2) if it were true for me, then I would need to concede it as true for everyone else, which would leave us in such conceit and self-centered anarchy and chaos that we and the world would become nonfunctional nonfunctional.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We do this first step, the learning step, through study, contemplation, and meditation. Those three combine to send signals back to the parasympathetic nervous system to tell it to adjust and change. What do we study? We study sutras and commentaries, most especially on emptiness. There is a vast Buddhist literature on emptiness. If you have specific questions about how or where to access these, or where to find a teacher to guide you, please <a href="mailto:carl@nsmdc.org?subject=email%20subject"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">email</span></a> me.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Second step, the interconnectedness step, we learn that there is a deep connection between what we do, between how we think about things and behave and whether or not we live in regret. The Noble Eightfold Path is the big picture. It provides the world view and understanding that leads to a life without regrets (right view and right intention); it provides the behavior guidelines, our main concern in this second step (right effort, right speech, right livelihood, right action); and then it enhances those with meditation (right mindfulness and right concentration) which leads to the wisdom that keeps our practice stable and alive.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">One some levels, this is just learning the big picture, or the bigger picture, depending on our karma. On other levels, it is about developing the discipline to actuate these understandings and beliefs, which in my own practice usually is the more difficult task.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Step three, which is very closely related to step two, is developing a daily, lifelong mindfulness meditation practice. The single more effective tool for changing to a life without regrets is mindfulness meditation. Mindful alternate nostril breathing, which many students find to be the easier and most effective entry into mindfulness meditation, is also one of the most effective and fast-working tools we have for reversing the signal and telling the primitive brains centers that are controlling us to slow down and become aware of what’s really happening.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To be candid here, this needs to be more than a three-minute centering with a few deep breathe now and then when you’re feeling off kilter. It needs to be a daily practice; such as 10 or 15 minutes twice daily. It needs to be as part of the daily routine as brushing our teeth.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Just following one’s breath is the most common form of mindfulness meditation, but there are many others, and there are variations and modulations for each that can be explored so that your meditation leads you to a concentrated mind. Again, if you have specific questions about how to meditate or how to modulate your meditation to compensate for different levels or activity and stress in your life, or where to find a teacher to guide you, please <a href="mailto:carl@nsmdc.org?subject=question%20from%20blog"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">email</span></a> me.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Having lead a responsible and compassionate life with no regrets, when death approaches, as it does unfailingly in each moment and each life, we know how to respond–kindly and peacefully. </span></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-79015323204849097672012-12-02T13:08:00.001-06:002012-12-02T13:08:26.713-06:00No Regrets. Part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b>I have no regrets and the world has no regrets.</b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; text-align: center;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i>This is the second in a series on living without regret</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The way the mind processes and allots information to us leaves us, and the world as we see it, filled with regrets–the “I should have done thats” “It would have been better ifs,” etc. The goal of our spiritual path is for us to have no regrets and for the world to have no regrets, not blindly surrender to the directions of the amygdala, that almond shaped mass in the center of our brain which makes us stressed and full of regrets. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Our goal is to learn how <i>not</i> to be forced to surrender to the neuropeptides that the amygdala releases into our mind and body ramping up our stress and anxiety in a variety of physical responses and psychological responses and reflexes, all of which leave us with regrets. Our goal is to train our mind to process and allot information to us in ways that leave us settled and peaceful, with no regrets.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Understanding that this is what happens, and then learning how to stop it has been the work of Buddhist monks almost 3000 years. The most prominent monks who wrote and codified the workings of the mind so that we could understand it and retrain it for the benefit of all beings were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asanga"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Asanga</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasubandhu"><span style="color: #021eaa; letter-spacing: 0px;">Vasubandhu</span></a>, brothers in the fourth century. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Today neuroscientists are starting to unpack how all this happens, “empirically” to use their word, to test what Asanga and his brother observed “subjectively” It is abundantly clear from both the “empirical” and the “subjective” sides here that our mind doesn’t function to make us happier and healthier, which is the way it presents itself to us, but rather to leave us regretting either not having enough of some things (the ones the amygdala attached an affinity to) or regretting getting too much of others (the ones to which an aversion was assigned). The question is no longer about the validity of the teachings; the questions is simply one of experiencing them in a way that allows acceptance: acceptance of the Two Truths, acceptance of the Five Aggregates, acceptance of the Four Dharma Seals, acceptance of Dependent Arising.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The goal of our path and our practice, which comes from this acceptance, is to live a life without regrets, to live a life in which the world too has no regrets. We do this in three ways. First, we learn to understand that the information our mind is sending us is false and foolish, mostly pre-cognitive nonsense. Second, we learn to act in ways that make us mindful and aware instead of reflexive and reactive. And third, we commit ourselves to a regular meditation practice so that we can off-load four millions years of fictional beliefs and stories (<i>sankharas</i>) that are driving us and the world to regret.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Baskerville; font-size: 11px;">
<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In a phrase, this is “changing our karma.” As we become practiced and successful at this in the short term, we gradually become more and more peaceful and less and less regretful. As we succeed in the long term, we end our karma, the negative and nonsensical thrust that pushes us forward. Although we don’t usually write in such traditional and blunt phrasing, the goal of our practice is to end regrets by ending our karma. Ending our karma simply means ending the ability of our <i>sankharas</i> to drive our behavior. Without the amygdala in charge we become present to what is really happening, fully engaged with the world as it is. We become open to whatever arises, with a warm and respectful heart. We are awake, mindful and aware, which is our true nature, and then it’s over.</span></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-59522969429420284022012-11-14T07:50:00.001-06:002012-11-14T07:50:39.097-06:00A "No Regrets" Thanksgiving and New Year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>I Have No Regrets, and the World Too Has No Regrets<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As we give thanks and approach the New Year, consider this
as a contemplative meditation: “I have no regrets and the world has no
regrets.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These words indicate the essence of the way we should
practice and view the world.<br />
<br />
As we go through in life we notice very very very little is as we might wish it
to be, and this applies equally to individuals, to any particular social groups
or organizations, to society and even to the world as a whole. Moreover, throughout
history, human beings have always been embroiled in the profound dilemmas of
impermanence: birth, old age, sickness and death; and of desires that lead us
to ceaselessly harm others!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although many heroes and saints and prophets have arisen to
alleviate human suffering, still, in comparison to the vastness of human sorrow
their efforts really amount to no more than a cupful of water poured on a
burning building. Strictly speaking, our heroes and saints end up "dying
before their ambition is fulfilled."<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Rather than filling ourselves with ambitions and
resolutions, consider instead committing to a year of contemplating: <i>I have no regrets, and the world too has no
regrets</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
How so? Set a timer for 10 minutes. Sit down in a comfortable chair and quiet
your mind with a few long deep but gentle breaths. Make the inhalation shorter
than the exhalation. Allow your body to settle down and your back and bottom to
become one with the chair. Then address yourself to the meaning of the
contemplation: <i>I have no regrets, and the
world too has no regret.</i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Find a pattern in which you can think analytically about the
contemplation. You might, for example, consider the meaning of the two clauses
separately [“I have no regrets” and “the world has no regrets], then together.
Or you might choose to parse the words: what are regrets, what does it mean to
have no regrets; no regrets for me, for the world, what are the synonyms and
antonyms for “no regrets,” etc.? Alternatively, you can parse by contemplating
the meanings of the subjects of the clauses [ “I” and “world”] relative to the
no-regret-statement.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another perspective for the contemplation is through
impermanence. Since we know that everything, even us ourselves, is impermanence
and ever changing; since we know that nothing is autonomous or permanent or
existing independently from its own side; since we know that, at the very
least, stuff is simply not as it appears to us. Therefore, while there are
conditions to which we need to respond, with wisdom and right action, there
really are no problems! Since there are no problems, how can we have any
regrets?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Familiarizing yourself with the five aggregates (<i>skandhas</i>) is another way of
contemplating this: familiarize yourself with what each of the five is and
does, how they sequence, and which are pre-cognitive and which are cognitive.
This practice that can open up your heart with gratitude and welcome in the New
Year with a roadmap for a better and more peaceful life, for you and for the
world.<br />
<br />
As the New Year approaches, consider committing to a practice, to a thoughtful and studied life,
in which you can say, moment after moment, day after day, “I have no regrets!”
and simultaneously and intuitively feel that the world is in the same boat as
you: it too has no regrets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="mailto:carl@nsmdc.org">Email</a> if you have any questions or want more information on this practice.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy New Year.</div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
</div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-28743846829183612452012-11-06T15:28:00.002-06:002012-11-06T15:28:27.253-06:00The Two Truths<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
The Two Truths</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
A Brief Philosophic
Introduction</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Regard all dharma as dreams….<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Two Truths is one of the most fundamental teachings in
Buddhism today, and yet it is barely even mentioned in the early scriptures
(the Pali Canon or the Agamas). It wasn’t until Nagarjuna’s writing in the 4<sup>th</sup>
century, a thousand years after the Buddha’s death, that the idea took hold.
This is, perhaps, because The Two Truths is more an understanding about reality
than it is a “teaching.” Or perhaps it was just that a thousand years was
needed for Buddhism to develop so that conditions allowed it this teaching to
arise. Whatever the reason, the more we learn about The Two Truths, the more we
practice with and them realize them experientially, the less <i>dukkha</i> we create and the less suffering
there is in our life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Two Truths explain that there are two levels of reality:
the conventional and the ultimate. The conventional is the everyday world, full
of objects and beings and ideas that all seem “true,” autonomous, and separate
from us. This is the way our senses feed us information: I see the plant, I am
here, it is there, I am independent and existent and substantial, it is
independent and existent and substantial, we are each separate and autonomous
and, at least at this moment, permanent. What I believe about the plant is
true: if I think it is a good plant, it is a good plant. If I think it is too
big for where it is placed in the hall, it is too big; if I then move it to the
corner of the living room, it becomes too small. I don’t see that it can’t be
too big and a moment later too small unless it is not really permanent and
substantial.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The ultimate truth is the more profound (deeper philosophic)
understanding that all things are things are impermanent, interconnected (dependently
originated), non-self (empty of any inherent nature). The ultimate nature of
things, in a word, is emptiness. It is things as they are, before we reify
them, before we impute them with a concrete, independent, material existence;
before we assign them meaning and value–good/bad, too big/too small.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can’t have one without the other, ultimate without
conventional, though it often seems that way when we begin to learn about these
two truths. In fact, the learning process takes us from thinking each of these
two truths is independent to understanding the two operate together, to finally
realizing that they are one.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Philosophically, by positing that there are two levels of
reality, we are suggesting that there is something which is sub-dividable, something
that can be categorized in two ways. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So you can ask yourself, "What are we sub-dividing?"
and the answer is “a knowable object.” Here, a knowable is simply something
that is existing. To exist means to be knowable, and to be knowable means to exist.
But not everything that “is known” exists. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2boBydwUql3YW2KDByQnQrBlxAALH2E-Q1E7eoxYaKx1CJfer9SUpxxMH_DnepQEyq80XF-alFebBoJ0lL1VKRCW1k44J5BbjvKDbWkZmlEHH-9cDn2mM8kZX0nNdBg4JghTxywfYC58/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-11-06+at+3.27.18+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2boBydwUql3YW2KDByQnQrBlxAALH2E-Q1E7eoxYaKx1CJfer9SUpxxMH_DnepQEyq80XF-alFebBoJ0lL1VKRCW1k44J5BbjvKDbWkZmlEHH-9cDn2mM8kZX0nNdBg4JghTxywfYC58/s200/Screen+Shot+2012-11-06+at+3.27.18+PM.png" width="136" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact, just because it is “known” doesn’t mean it exists.
I could fabricate the idea a rabbit with antlers, a jackalope. Taxidermists in
the West often create these trophy animals for the amusement of their customers
and to poke fun at “city folk.” I could fabricate this awareness, and in that
sense rabbit's antlers are something known, but they certainly don't exist. And
to someone caught in the joke, jackalopes are just as real as if they did in
fact exist in the prairie.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we equate things that exist with things that are known,
we mean that they are known by a valid awareness, a valid conventional
consciousness. Obviously, this can be tricky. Our obligation, therefore, is to
see as clearly as we can so that our awareness is as valid an awareness and as
correct a conventional consciousness as possible. We should also note that
validity is not determined by the number of individuals who might believe
something or claim an awareness of it: even though the Greeks and later the
Alexandrians has accurately measured the circumference of the earth, from the
time of Christ until Columbus, Europeans chose to believe the world was flat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So if a person makes a statement that mirrors reality, then
that statement is true. If it does not mirror reality, it is a lie. “Lie” is a
very strong word. One could instead say it is a “fiction.” But “lie” is
important to use because lying to ourselves about the nature of reality is the
source of all our suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our biggest baddest lie is that we and other things are
permanent, autonomous, and exist inherently; that we are independent and
separate from everything else, which is independent and separate from us. When
I look at a tree, I say to myself: “I see the tree.” The way the mind processes
that sense contact, it presents the information to me as if there is a me that
is separate and autonomous and a tree that is separate and autonomous.
Believing that, believing that we are separate and autonomous, believing that
there is Someone or Something, is the big lie, and the source of all our
suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact nobody or nothing, anywhere, has anything that
inherently makes it what it is. Nothing has its own personal mark. Everything
exists simply through language, through ideas. The absence of something, the
total absence, the total not-being, non-existence of anything that is not there
through the power of language and thought is, emptiness, the ultimate truth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So far this has been a serious, if partial and introductory
look at the meaning of The Two Truths. So why is this concept so important?
What does it mean on an everyday level?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. Not understanding The Two Truths means we believe the
information that is coming at us is complete and true. We believe that our
perception of the world is correct; we believe our stories about these
experiences are true. So we act from that place with confidence causing
ourselves more and more suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. When we act from a wrong perception, and invalid
conventional consciousness, or a limited perception; when we don’t see clearly
that there is a conventional world and an ultimate reality, we cause a vast
network of interrelated problems to arise, we cause ourselves to suffer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i>Practicing with The Two Truths<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Not Believing What Our
Mind Tells Us<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The simplest and easiest tool to apply The Two Truths to our
everyday life is to simply remember not to believe anything our minds tell us.
If my mind tells me I should be upset because there is a ding in the door of
“my car,” I need to recognize that there is simply a chip in the paint on a
piece of plastic and that it might need to be repaired, but not believe stories
I have created about it: “This always happens to me,” as though some force of
the universe conspires against me and my car to make me upset, or “I hate it
when people are so dishonest that they don’t even leave a note when they ding
your car door,” which assumes they even knew they had dinged the door, which
might not be true, and assumes that they planned to do it to me, which is nonsense,
they don’t even know me; or “The door is ruined; I’ll never be able to afford
to get it fixed,” etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
These stories appear to be known, but in fact are lies
because they do not mirror reality.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yes, there’s a chip in the paint; yes, it might need to be
repaired at some point. But we don’t need to define it as a personal problem or
as an assault against us personally.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simpler said than done? Not really; not once you have
practiced it for a while. In fact; it is easier done than said. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Laughing At Our
Stories<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another perspective on this practice is simply to notice
when you are getting irritated or annoyed or upset or angry or depressed and to
ask yourself, what story is causing me this dukkha now? In the example of the
ding in the car door, the story is: <i>my</i>
car door should never get a ding, it should always be as pristine as it was the
moment I bought it. Other people can get dings and scratches, that’s ok, but
not me. All our stories, if we are seeing what is really happening in our
minds, as silly and self-centered. Seeing this, we can laugh at the story, and
that laugh takes all the sting out of it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-50363321478672351152012-10-15T07:39:00.001-05:002012-10-15T07:39:20.688-05:00What Is Our Practice?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>A Brief Overview</b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<br />
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our own plight, in everything we do, is to reduce our discomfort and to
gain a sense of happiness. It’s omnipresent; it’s why we scratch an itch and
why we have children and why we start wars. On more nuanced levels, it is why
we love, and why we grieve.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once we understand this we can begin the real spiritual work that will
free us from suffering. Once we fully realize this, we see clearly that
everyone everywhere is trying, virtually always unsuccessfully and often very
unwisely, to do the same thing: to avoid <i>dukkha</i>–to
avoid the discreet discomfort of minor situations–little <i>dukkha</i>–to avoid the deep physical and psychological pain of intense
situations–big <i>dukkha</i>–over and over,
time and again and again, moment after moment. Deeply understanding this, we realize
that our suffering and the suffering of all beings is linked, interdependent
and interrelated, directly and indirectly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The more deeply we believe this, the less self-centered we can be and
the more other-centered we become; the more patient, compassionate and generous
we allow ourselves to be. Eventually, our primary goal becomes one of being of
benefit to others because nothing else makes sense. As we move in this
direction, our self-centered mindstates weaken and fall away. Anger in its
myriad forms from irritation to rage, and even depression, all self-centered
mindstates, weaken and fall away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To make this sift, we must overcome the three poisons: (1) our
predisposition to want more of what we like and less of what we don’t, (2) the
frustration at never being able to get and keep–or remove and keep away–enough,
and (3) our understanding of ourselves as separate and autonomous. To overcome
these poisons (greed, anger and delusion), we must overcome our sense of Self,
for it is the stories of who we are, which are our Self–our ego–that poison
us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One way to do this is to get a handle on <i>emptiness</i> and to stay with it. The more deeply we understand,
contemplate, and study emptiness, the more the three poisons and their
corollaries (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetter_(Buddhism)#Lists_of_fetters">fetters</a>)
and stories just drop away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The most fundamental and essential way to learn about emptiness is to
study the relationship between dependent origination and emptiness. The study
is aimed at learning that dependent origination and emptiness aren’t different,
but neither are they the same; that one implies the other yet they are not two
and not one. For many, learning about no-self or non-self is a useful first
step in this direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Emptiness allows us to understand that things do not inherently exist,
which is the way they appear to us, but rather exist only nominally as we
impute them. Ultimately this allows us to see that everything is
interdependent, imputed by the mind but not from the mind only.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This means we need to combine both right ethical behavior (like giving,
morality, patience, diligent effort, compassion, etc.) and wisdom (the
realization of the emptiness of self, other and action, and of their
inseparability) so that the inseparability of the Two Truths becomes clear: the
affirmation that everything is not existent, not non-existent, not both, and
not neither.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Buddha never taught emptiness. The word “emptiness” barely even
appears in 11,000 or so early scriptures of the Agamas or Pali Canon. Yet this
teaching has become, as the Venerable Master Yin Shun writes: “perhaps the most profound
and important theory of the entire Buddhadharma.” Approach it gently and it
will open itself up for you revealing the wonders of the Middle Path.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-85584147368324777872012-09-12T17:30:00.001-05:002012-09-12T17:30:24.101-05:00Understanding Kindness, Really Really Understanding Kindness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The Kindness of All
Living Beings</div>
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<i><span style="color: #0d6212; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">If I want no more or less
than what I am given,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #0d6212; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-size: 18.0pt;">Then whatever I am given, by
any living being, is supreme kindness.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">What the tenets of Buddhism, and
emptiness in particular, are suggesting is that until we understand that each
and every living being is supremely kind to us, we cannot really understand how
to relate to others (see previous blog on <i>Relationships
Without Attachment</i>). Until we understand this in our hearts and
minds–without hesitation, without reservation, without exception–the compassion
which is at our core is unable to arise spontaneously and so we suffer
unnecessarily.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">It’s not that the belief “each and
every living being is supremely kind to me” is true or not true. It is, from
the Buddhist point of view, simply a perspective we need to work from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">For the sake of this blog and its
exercises, just take the statement “Each and every living being is supremely
kind to me” at its surface value. (1) Don’t think about changing any of the
words; consider them non-negotiable. (2) Don’t try parsing the words into a
meaning you like better. (3) Don’t think about connotations and denotations:
whether spiders and trees are living beings, for example; whether each and
every has to mean all, without even a single exception. (4) And don’t don’t get
hung up on the act or action that another might do, simply sidestep that issue
for now–eventually it will become clear why it is unimportant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Consideration One</div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Consider that </span><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">all our day-to-day needs are
provided through the kindness of others</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">. We brought
nothing into this life, yet, the moment we were born, we were given what we
needed–all provided through the kindness of others. Don’t drift off message
here into thinking the it-would-have-been-better-ifs. Don’t drift off into the
how it-should-have-beens. Simply consider how kind the universe is to have
provided us with an infrastructure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Seriously
contemplate this understanding: Everything we now enjoy has been provided
through the kindness of other beings, past or present.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Consider all the ways that is true.
Consider how we are able live and move about in this life with very little
effort on our own part. If we consider facilities such as roads, cars, trains,
airplanes, ships, houses, restaurants, hotels, libraries, hospitals, shops,
money and so on, it is clear that many people worked very hard to provide these
things. Even though we make little or no contribution towards the provision of
these facilities, they are all available to us and for us through the great
kindness of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Consider how our general education,
even the language or languages in learn, and our spiritual training were and
continue to be provided by others. All of our realizations and insights into
how to live are and were attained in dependence upon the kindness of others. Even
our ability to learn to be more peaceful, to practice meditation and Buddhism,
is available to use through the kindness of others.*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">This supreme kindness of each and
every living being is the gateway through which we see the unmitigated need to
feel and realize compassion for all living beings. It is the gateway through
which we develop this compassion by relying upon the understanding that because
of the supreme kindness of all living beings, each and every living being is
and should be an object of our compassion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">It is through the great kindness of
all living beings that we have the opportunity to live better and more
peacefully, and to make our family and friends and the world a better, more
peaceful place, and to attain the supreme happiness that comes from
enlightenment. Keeping ourselves in this perspective, it is clear that for us
all living beings are supremely kind and precious.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">From the depths of our hearts, then,
we should contemplate Consideration Two (below). To do this, write out the
contemplation so you can have it with you. Often during contemplations, the
words morph into another meaning. Having it in writing with you will prevent
this. Go for a half-hour walk, preferably outside in a park or field. Why
outside? Because that’s where you will encounter other living beings whose
presence will strengthen your contemplation. During the walk, let you body
settle into the earth, feel your feet grounding you, develop a mindful
awareness of your surroundings, and think about Consideration Two: validate it
from every angle you can; consider its deeper meanings, and sense who you would
become if indeed you unquestionably and wholeheartedly cherished every living
being. Also, think about what effect this would have on you and your family and
friends and your colleagues and the planet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Consideration Two</div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Each and every living being is
supremely kind to me. I cherish each and every living being.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">Understanding and thinking in this
way, we generate a warm heart and a feeling of being equally close to all
living beings without exception. By continually contemplating and meditating on
these two considerations, we maintain an open and warm heart and a feeling of
being close to each and every living being, all the time, in every situation,
without exceptions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This is our practice, to
continuously maintain </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">an open and warm heart and a
feeling of being close to each and every living being, all the time, in every
situation, without exception. To maintain this open heart, this mind of universal
compassion and love, we train ourselves in this new perspective through
contemplation. The more we see all living beings as supremely kind to us the
more we will spontaneously cherish them all. The deeper our understanding of
this becomes, the broader our definition of “all livings beings” becomes, and
the more and more peaceful and happy we find ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">To continuously maintain </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">an
open and warm heart and a feeling of being close to each and every living
being, all the time, in every situation, without exception, is the answer to
the question: how do I relate to others without attachment? We relate to each
and every one of them with compassion. We simply cherish each and every one of
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">There are others ways to
reason the validity of this every-living-being-is-supremely-kind-to-me
practice. Two of the most common are (1) understanding that everything I do is
to relieve my suffering, then everything everyone else does is to relieve their
suffering, therefore, <i>regardless of the
act</i>, then whatever anyone is doing is an act of kindness so I must respond
compassionately; and (2) if we see the actions of others, regardless of what
they are, as simple opportunities for us to practice being unconditionally
compassionate, then we can understand any action as an act of kindness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.5pt;">This does not mean that all
acts are to be condoned or approved. Obviously many acts are unwise and
unskillful, like lying and stealing, and at the extremes, like child abuse and
killing. What these contemplations suggest is that we can see past the specific
acts and our labeling and judging of them, and when we do, a profound new level
of peacefulness arises from within and anger and depression fall away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-17882790944377310872012-08-20T08:22:00.004-05:002012-08-20T08:22:49.535-05:00Relationships with Attachments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Relationships Without Attachment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Understanding personal relationships
in a spiritual system that asserts non-attachment is difficult, though
essentially it is neither complicated nor obtuse. Stated concisely, emptiness
tells us to relate to all beings in the same way–with an open heart filled with
compassion and love. But which beings we relate to and the intensity and
commitment with which we do this is often much less clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Interpersonal relationships fall on
a spectrum:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;"> <i>Loved</i>------------------------------------------------------------------------<i>Hated</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">This runs from the unconditionally
loved, such as children, to those we like, those to whom we are indifferent,
those we dislike, and at the far end, to those we hate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Who falls where on the spectrum is
the result of our karmic connection to them. These are not static placements.
For example, during a divorce, a once loved spouse can become hated and later
one can be indifferent and perhaps even develop a liking for her again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Speaking literally and
metaphorically, we start at our own doorstep. Our most intense commitments are
to our nuclear families, then our more extended families, then to friends and
colleagues, and so on to those toward whom we are indifferent. How much you are
able and willing to do for an individual is a reflection of their closeness to
your karmic doorstep.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Unfortunately, as we move from
indifferent at the midpoint toward those we dislike, feel anger toward, or
perhaps even hate, the intensity increases because we have a story that places
them front-and-center, on our doorstep. So where we choose to put someone on
the spectrum is very consequential. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Regardless of whether they are loved
or hated, emptiness tells us to treat everyone the same–with the vast open
compassionate heart that arises from our Buddhanature. To do this, we must
realize that regardless of where we place someone on the love-to-hate scale,
our spiritual practice remains the same: we respond to them with universal
love, with patience, compassion and generosity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">This is not to dismiss the
love-to-hate scale as unimportant. We do need to know the different between our
daughter and the neighbor’s kid, our business partner and our jogging buddy.
Relationships, which are in large part reflected by the scale, establish the
karmic responsibilities and obligations we have to others and in dong so
establish the intensity and extent to which we respond. I might save to pay for
my daughter’s college education, for example, but I am not likely to do that
for the neighbor’s child. Although I always want to be dependable with both, to
use another example, I am much more likely to take a call from my partner at
the office when I am on vacation than from the neighbor with whom I jog on
Sunday mornings.<b> </b>A married woman
with three children has very different karmic responsibilities than a novice
nun at a monastery, and so on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">These are simply karmic parameters
within which we function in the everyday world. They are the conditions of our
life. They determine the extent of our internal and external energies, of the
emotional and material resources we devote to other living beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Our spiritual path tells us not to
attach to these roles, however. To be a good mother, we don’t need to attach to
being a mother, to define ourselves in a spiritually unhealthy way by some
permanent understanding of me-as-mother. That’s not about relating to our
children, that’s about me and my needs. Instead, we need to look at the karmic
conditions of our relationship with our children, seeing clearly where our
responsibilities lie. Noting that they are constantly changing, we fulfill
those obligations as best we can, with an open loving heart that arises from a
profound sense of compassion, from our Buddhanature, from bodhichitta. This is
about being of benefit to our children, not about attaching to self; this is
about compassion and love, not self-cherishing. This is about responding to
conditions without attachments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">Our karmic responsibilities to our
children modulate as they grow older, as they leave the house, as do our
obligations and responsibilities to them. We need to love them without
attaching to our old stories about who we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">We need to see karmic obligations
and responsibilities as conditions, conditions as conditions, not as
attachments. Then we are able to respond appropriately to each and every living
being, regardless of where they are on the love-to hate scale, appropriately. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">No living being deserves us to be
self-cherishing and arrogant, which comes from the love side of the scale, nor
does any living being deserve our anger or scorn, which comes from the hate end
of the scale, nor our indifference, which comes from the middle. The scale
reminds us of our responsibilities, emptiness shows us how to act. These must
be understood and practiced together, as one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">For
further study</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular; mso-bidi-font-size: 19.0pt;">: The monks who composed the Diamond
Sutra looked back from nirvana at how they had created their idea of who they
were and described it as having four aspects: Self, Person, Being, and Soul. Self
is the self-cherishing/attachment aspect, Person is the roles and
responsibilities aspect, Being is the deluded perception aspect; we don’t need
to concern ourselves much with Soul here. Studying the first three of these
will deepen your understanding of how to achieve a mind of universal compassion
and love and further you along the path to right relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-18036730880182790902012-07-24T07:29:00.003-05:002012-07-24T07:29:47.776-05:00Spiritual Materialism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>You'll Never Find The Answer</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b>By Shopping Around</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once people discover that sense of something missing in
their lives, in themselves, there is a tendency is to shop in the spiritual
marketplace and to pickup pieces from here and there that<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“feel right.” It’s much like shopping
for a shirt and tie, or a blouse and skirt. We pickup colors and patterns that
we like. Which means that the new ideas we are seeking have to agree with what
we already know. And therein lies the first problem of spiritual materialism.
We want something new, but only if it confirms the old ideas. Being that’s not
possible, we are fundamentally doomed from the beginning. Longterm we won’t get
anywhere, although perhaps in the short-term we will feel a little better.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What we are confronted with, in the vast marketplace of
spiritual literature and religious institutions today, are beliefs and belief
systems that are confusing and contradictory, even when it appears they saying
the same thing. The idea of “no killing” in the Abrahamic faiths, for example,
is very different from “no killing” in Buddhism. In the Abrahamic faiths, there
are exceptions to the rule and different interpretations of its meaning, in
Buddhism it is not so.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The eclectic approach to solving our spiritual dilemma by
picking and choosing from various faiths whatever seems amenable to our needs
and then forcing those pieces into a whole that is personally satisfying, in
the end, never solves the problem. What we end up with is not a cohesive whole,
not a path that leads us to peacefulness, but a road to nowhere, albeit in
place nicely paved.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bhikkhu Bodhi writes: “There are two interrelated flaws in
eclecticism that account for its ultimate inadequacy. One is that eclecticism
compromises the very traditions it draws upon. The great spiritual traditions
themselves do not propose their disciplines as independent techniques that may
be excised from their setting and freely recombined to enhance the felt quality
of our lives. They present them, rather, as parts of an integral whole, of a
coherent vision regarding the fundamental nature of reality and the final goal
of the spiritual quest. A spiritual tradition is not a shallow stream in which
one can wet one's feet and then beat a quick retreat to the shore. It is a
mighty, tumultuous river which would rush through the entire landscape of one's
life, and if one truly wishes to travel on it, one must be courageous enough to
launch one's boat and head out for the depths.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The second defect in eclecticism follows from the first. As
spiritual practices are built upon visions regarding the nature of reality and
the final good, these visions are not mutually compatible. When we honestly
examine the teachings of these traditions, we will find that major differences
in perspective reveal themselves to our sight, differences which cannot be
easily dismissed as alternative ways of saying the same thing. Rather, they
point to very different experiences constituting the supreme goal and the path
that must be trodden to reach that goal.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To give peacefulness a chance, we need to find a system with
a proven track record of producing peacefulness in its followers and we need
then to walk its path, period. The search for a spiritual path is born out of
suffering. We cannot end our suffering, or even reduce it significantly, by
creating our own special system from an eclectic assemblage of others’ ideas.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">For a deeper look into
<a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/tib/cutting.htm">this topic</a>,
consider reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Through-Spiritual-Materialism-Shambhala/dp/1590306392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342920365&sr=8-1&keywords=Cutting+Through+Spiritual+Materialism">Cutting
Through Spiritual Materialism</a> by Chögyam Trungpa. Rinpoche is the late 20<sup>th</sup>
century Tibetan monk who coined the phrase “spiritual materialism.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-39816137886400891242012-07-09T06:52:00.001-05:002012-07-09T06:52:24.998-05:00Achieving Happiness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">To Seek Or Not To Seek Happiness<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Want to be really happy? Start by realizing that it cannot
come from externals. That it must arise from within you, without you seeking
it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Unhappiness is a feeling that arises when we make a sense
contact to which we have an aversion. Happiness, in the conventional use of the
term, is a change in feeling from a sense contact for which we are aversive to
one for which we have an affinity.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking closely at our mind, we see that conventional
happiness is a reduction in suffering based on a shift in attention from one
external object to another. Because we have an affinity for the contact and its
attendant external object, this type of happiness must by its very nature leave
us with some degree of uneasiness. The uneasiness (dukkha) is based on a fear
of not being able to sustain the feeling or of not knowing if we will be able
to get more of the object. Anger arises when we fail in our desire for more.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The illusion of being happy, ironically, is the source of fear
and anger in our lives.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The happiness that arises from within when we develop a mind
of compassion, when our views and intentions are right, when our actions are
pure, and when we are mindful and concentrated, is real happiness. Real
happiness needs no defending and no protecting, and is not based on desire or
change. Real happiness arises in its own from a life lived right.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A key practice that will allow happiness to arise from
within, from our factory or default setting, is the practice of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mudita</i>–sympathetic or unselfish joy. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mudita</i>, the happiness born of shared
love, shared satisfactions, shared delights in another's success, and shared
delight in other’s spiritual progress, surpasses in every way the meager
selfish conventional happiness that arises from the momentary affinities.
Further, unselfish joy multiplies exponentially the more it is used, so quite
apart from its purifying effect on our own lives, it moves us further along the
path to real happiness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As Venerable Nyanaponika Thera wrote: If our potential for
unselfish joy is widely and methodically encouraged and developed…the seed of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mudita</i> can grow into a strong plant that
will blossom forth and find fruition in many other virtues as a kind of
beneficial "chain reaction": magnanimity, patience, generosity (of
both heart and purse), friendliness, and compassion. When unselfish joy grows,
many noxious weeds in the human heart will die a natural death (or will, at
least, shrink): jealousy and envy, ill will in various degrees and
manifestations, cold-heartedness, miserliness (also in one's concern for
others), and so forth. Unselfish joy acts as a powerful agent in releasing
dormant forces of the good and wholesome in the human heart.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We know very well how envy and jealousy–the chief opponents
of unselfish joy–can poison a person’s life. Therefore, isn’t it obvious that
we should cultivate their antidote, which is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mudita</i>? </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While compassion is the inspiration for charitable and
social work, for being of benefit to others, acts that free us from our self-centeredness
and allow happiness to arise, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mudita</i>
vitalizes and ennobles those acts and serves as their boon companion. In those
who practice acts of altruism, of selfless giving, the joy they find in such acts
enhances and supports the doing of more and more of those acts, and this
self-perpetuating ethical unselfishness naturally guides us to a better
appreciation and realization of the Buddha's central doctrine of No-self or
Non-Self, which the foundations of real happiness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Children readily respond by their own smiles and happy mood
to smiling faces and happiness around them. If we are to realize real
happiness, we must learn to do exactly that.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-41948264554848333512012-06-25T08:02:00.001-05:002012-06-25T08:02:05.898-05:00The Soul Question<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Do We Have A Soul?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Western students first learn about Buddhism, the “Soul
Question” inevitably arises from their backgrounds in the Abrahamic faiths. The
short answer to this question, “No. Buddhists don’t believe there is a soul. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That answer is predicated on a particular definition, a
particular understanding of what the word “soul” means. What Buddhism means by
soul is something that is static and never changes, an essence that is eternal;
an essence that is not effected by anything else. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, a soul is “partless,” meaning that it is not made-up
of a bunch of pieces, like a car or a dog.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another characteristic is that a soul can exist separately
from body and mind. It can comes and go from place to place, and of course,
life to after life. It lives inside a person like an occupant lives a house. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Buddhist philosophy says that there is no such thing.
Nothing is permanent, nothing is in and of itself. How it posits this is
complicated, but simply put the Buddhist understanding arises from a fundamental
believe that all things are impermanent and conditioned by other things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What Buddhism posits in place of a soul is an ever-changing
Self that has no beginning and no end. It has many parts, so it is not
something findable. It cannot exist separately. With our moment to moment to
moment mental activity, that “me,” that conventional Buddhist “Self,” is just
an imputation. It is not something that you can find solidly inside each moment.
Nonetheless we have a conventional way of putting together all these moments
and labeling it “Me.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Buddhism emphasizes over and over that we are a conditioned
phenomenon. What moves from one moment to another is a subtle Self that is
described by the Five Aggregates, not a soul. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On investigation, the soul turns out to be a simple fiction.
Unfortunately, is it a fiction that leads to believing in a large, complex
false reality that has been the source of suffering for vast numbers of people
since ancient times. Why this is so is addressed in a variety of teachings–chiefly,
The Four Characteristics of All Phenomena, Dependent Co-Arising, and Emptiness.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Believing in a soul requires a vast network of speculative
ideas about other permanent things and places–gods and heavens and hells, for
example–in order to form a moral code. What we learn from simple personal
observation of our impermanent and ever-changing Self is that the meaning of
life is found in our impermanent and therefore interconnected nature: in being
of benefit to others. And the first rule of being of benefit is “Do not harm.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How do we do no harm? We can start with this simple
exercise: Every time you approach someone with whom you expect to interact, ask
yourself (in your head, no out loud): “What can I do to be of benefit to this
person, here, now.” If you’re alone, ask it of yourself.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-64361838626953518622012-05-29T10:46:00.001-05:002012-05-29T10:46:15.518-05:00What Really Matters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Practicing with Emptiness<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once we pass the point of being novices in our practice, we
see that emptiness is at the core of the dharma. For many students, the word
itself is problematic. It is only later in their practice that they realize the
reason they struggle with the word is that it too is empty. For now, let’s not
make the word an obstacle to understanding this critically important Mahayana
teaching.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Let’s start by looking at what emptiness means. Emptiness
means that the things around us (animal, vegetable and mineral; people, places
and events; thoughts, ideas and concepts) don’t have any set definition or
value, don’t have any inherent meaning in and off themselves. Whatever meaning
they do have is because we have assigned it to them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We know this, at least on the most basic level, because we
know that we can change the meaning of something: sometimes it is good to sleep
in late, other times not (sleeping is empty); sometimes I think I look great,
other times not (my appearance is empty). In fact, because things are empty we
can change the story, the description we have of that thing. Empty means anyone
can assign whatever definition or meaning or value they want to what’s
happening. And that means we can learn to rewrite our stories in ways that reduce
and end our pain and suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What about stories that everyone agrees on, aren’t they
true? In the 6<sup>th</sup> century BC the Greeks determined that the world was
round and measured the circumference of the earth pretty accurately, yet
Europeans as a whole continued to believe that the world was flat until the 17<sup>th</sup>
century. The Alexandrians had measured the circumference of the earth with
remarkable accuracy in the 1<sup>st</sup> century BC, yet with the burning the
great library and the beginning of the Christian era, the world became flat,
flat, flat, again. Even if everyone seems to agree on a single story, that
doesn’t make it true or permanent; it is still empty. It is still just a story.
However, “accurate” understandings of the everyday world from stories are important
and useful, as we’ll see.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Emptiness is empty of story, empty of inherent and
always-the-same meaning and value. It does not suggest that the object doesn’t
exist. My car isn’t a good car or a bad car, it just depends on how I view it.
When it is running well, it’s a good car; when it breaks down, it’s a bad car.
The knowledge that on an ultimate, empty level, it’s not even “a car” until I
call it that, doesn’t mean, however, that it doesn’t exist. Of course it
exists. “Car,” though is just a label, a story. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So being “empty” isn’t a denial that things exist. Rather it
is an understanding that we superimpose upon ourselves–and on things around
us–a false existence, a self-existence or essential reality that actually does
not exist at all–a story about who we are and about the definitions, meaning of
values of the things around us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What is emptiness? Emptiness is the way things really are,
in an absolute sense. It is the way things exist as opposed to the conventional
way they appear. We naturally believe that the things we see around us, such as
tables, chairs and houses are truly existent, because we believe that they
exist in exactly the way that they appear.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, the way things appear to our senses is deceptive
and completely contradictory to the way in which they ultimately exist. Things
appear to exist from their own side, without depending upon our mind. This
computer, for example, seems to have its own independent, objective existence.
It seems to be “outside” whereas our mind seems to be “inside.” We feel that
the computer can exist without our mind; we do not feel that our mind is in any
way involved in bringing the book into existence.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although things that appear directly to our senses to be
truly existent, in reality all phenomena lack, or are empty of, true existence.
This computer, our body, our friends, and the entire universe are in reality
just appearances to mind, like things seen in a dream.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On another level, though, we know that things are empty
because we know that everything is impermanent, and being impermanent,
everything is therefore interconnected. [How we know this will be the topic of
a future blog.]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So why do we care? For two crucial reasons: Until we
understand that there are two truths, a conventional truth, which is our
understanding of things from our everyday perspective, our story-telling, and
that there is also an ultimate truth, that things really don’t exist on their
own as we seem to perceive them, that things really aren’t separate and solid
as our senses imply, that in fact everything is ultimately interrelated and
interconnected, we cannot (1) develop a moral code that allows us to
distinguish between right and wrong, and (2) we cannot meaningfully learn to
reduce and finally end our suffering. [Look for a further explanation of this
in a future blog.]</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before explaining a simple way to practice with emptiness to
reduce our suffering, even when we are experiencing “big dukkha,” even with
events as intense as the death of a child or a terminal cancer diagnosis, I
would like to offer Guy Newland’s analogy from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Emptiness-Taught-Tsong-kha-pas-Treatise/dp/1559393327/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338306338&sr=8-1">Introduction to Emptiness</a></i>. If this blog has at all wetted your
appetite for more about emptiness, go to Newland’s book. He writes:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I concocted for my students the analogy of two radio
stations. Channel A is "all things considered radio." This is our
regular, conventional channel, and on it we get all kinds of information about
the diversity and complexity of the world. Perhaps today they are airing a
fierce debate: the proponents of red cars are angry, in a raging controversy
with the proponents of blue cars. Normally we listen only to this station, so
we take it all at face value and without deeper scrutiny. We are unaware that
there is or could be any other channel. But in fact there is a second station,
broadcast on channel B, the ultimate perspective. Channel B's programming is
"all emptiness, all the time radio." Every phenomenon is presented
only from the point of view of its ultimate nature. But when we tune into this
channel, all of the detailed information from the other channel is unavailable.
From the perspective of ultimate reality, red cars and blue cars are equally
and exclusively empty [they are not even “cars.”].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Channel B, emptiness radio, adds new information and a
deeper perspective on what is being discussed on the conventional channel. It
shows that the things discussed on channel A definitely do not exist in the way
that they are ordinarily presented [as solid, separate, and having an essential
nature].<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">When we come back to channel A after tuning in to B, we now
understand just how it is that channel A is merely conventional; it is not the
only or final perspective. But this new information does not, of course, prove
that red cars are in all ways identical to blue cars. [Nor does channel B tell
us of the nonexistence of an essentially existent car, that there are no cars].
We still have to make distinctions and make choices about what, if anything, to
drive. Channel B alone does not allow us to make practical distinctions, so we
still need the information from channel A.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Each gives correct information about its domain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Conventional realities are not wiped out by…emptiness. The
problem of knowing which car to drive is the general problem of how to choose
between possible courses of action. It is the question of how empty persons can
make distinctions between right and wrong. [The great 14<sup>th</sup> century
Tibetan lama] Tsong-kha-pa shows that answering this question requires
distinguishing between two types of knowledge about persons, as well as cars
and other things.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
Practicing with
Emptiness</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of us live rather exclusively listening to channel A.
We see the world as seemingly permanent and separate. When my eyes make contact
with the plant in my office, I say to myself, “I see the plant.” Pure channel
A–me here, plant there, separate and each solid and existent on its own. When I
don’t get what I want, when things don’t go my way, I get mad. Again, pure
channel A.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This leads us to unending and unendable dukkha, to problems
with everything. As Newland points out, when we listen to channel A we become
unaware of channel B. To move significantly along the path toward peacefulness,
we must develop an awareness of channel B running in the background, behind the
information from channel A that we need to live everyday lives, make
distinctions (we need to be able to distinguish between a son and a husband,
for example), and we need these distinctions to be of value and benefit to our
families, friends, communities, and so on.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 1.5in;">
And therein lies the practice.
Instead of locking into and listening exclusively to channel A, which even when
“accurate” is black-and-white, rigid and problematic, say to yourself–whenever
you notice there is dukkha, whenever you notice that you are getting upset or
angry: “Where is channel B here?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whether it is big dukkha: the death of a child or parent, a terminal
illness, the loss of a job or house, or little dukkha, noticing a ding on the
car door, the moment your body sends you a signal that dukkha is arising (and
it is often easier to notice it in the body than the mind), just ask yourself,
“Where’s Channel B here?” and you regain your footing on the Middle Path and
the dukkha dissolves.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In these examples, the wisdom of emptiness on channel B lets
us see beyond our sense of loss to a greater understanding that aging and death
are part of every process. This lessons our attachment to “my” loss and allows
for grieving rather than self-indulgence. With a terminal illness, channel B
redirects our attention from wanting things to be otherwise to being present
and doing what is most beneficial, allowing us to see clearly and feel peaceful
as we pick wellness strategies. Similarly, a ding, channel B tells us, is
simply a chip in the paint on a piece of plastic–I can get it fixed, or not, as
is appropriate, without making it personal, without attaching and suffering.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Where’s channel B here?” That’s the practice. Having the
wisdom to keep an awareness of channel B while going about our lives in a
channel A world.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you would like more information about practicing with
emptiness, please email.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-75522655439002596702012-05-07T07:47:00.001-05:002012-05-07T07:47:28.713-05:00Practicing with Death and Dying<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Death and Dying, A Contemplative Meditation<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It is impossible to experience one’s own death objectively and still
carry a tune.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">–Woody Allen<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The aim of our spiritual journey a life without greed, anger
and delusion. And these three: greed, anger and delusion, are at the core of
our fear of death. Until we successfully address death as an event and issue,
it’s unlikely we will be able to live with any meaningful level of peace and
contentment, with any real off-loading of greed, angerand delusion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What we know from observation in general, as well as in our
meditation, is that we are impermanent and ever-changing. When we model this
out into the five aggregates or the 12 links of dependent co-arising, we see
that we are an ever-so-slightly different person from moment to moment, both physically
and psychologically. If we can understand and then on a deeper level realize
this, that we die and are reborn in each moment, death loses its grip on us. We
see from this that life and death are just labels, just our stories about when
something begins and ends rather than what is really happening, that everything
is ever-changing and undifferentiated. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Finally I realized there is no death and I relaxed!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Coming to know that I am reborn in every moment, that I die
and am reborn thousands upon thousands of times a day, has allowed my to
understand that there is no death, just a process. A process that is simply the
natural state of things, no more, no less. And certainly there is no reason for
me to make the natural state of things into a personal problem by convincing
myself that it should be other than what it is.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We all know that we are getting old and will someday die.
But that understanding is so weak and underdeveloped that on a weightier level
we are able to see ourselves as solid, substantial, somehow permanent–certainly
not a process. Even our language hinders us in thinking about and talking about
dying: there’s no way to die in the present tense. Dominique Bouhours, the late
17<sup>th</sup> century French grammarian, put it this way in his last words:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am about to–or I am going to– die: either expression is correct.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we understand our impermanence and interconnectedness
with everything: then and only then are we fully present in each moment and
fully engaged; then and only then can we let go of the arrogance and conceit of
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my life</i> being, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my life</i> being so important, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my
life</i> being more valuable than the lives of others, and the delusion that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my life</i> is so important that it
shouldn’t end. When we understand our impermanence and interconnectedness with
everything: then and only then do we realize that there is only arising
(birth), abiding (running our course), and ceasing (death); there is no death.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our fear of death stems from the fear of our ceasing to
exist, our fear of losing our identity and foothold in the world, our fear of
not being here. And this fear is so deep that it prevents us from seeing all
the tell-tale signs of death approaching; it is so strong that we spend
billions on everything from beauty creams to botox to stop getting older, to
slow the march toward death. Instead, what a spiritual journey tells us we
should be doing, is to prepare for death.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“How can I Prepare for Death?”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the broadest terms, we prepare for death by living
skillfully, by living in ways that in each moment make us and our families and
friends, our communities and our planet a better and more peaceful place. We do
this by living wisely, with moral discipline, and through meditation. Living in
that way requires a conviction to ripen our inner potential purely for the
benefit of others and without defiling our efforts with craving, clinging and
attachment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contemplative meditations on death are an important tool in
learning to die peacefully, and with ease and grace.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contemplation and meditation on death and impermanence are
important because it is only by recognizing how precious and how short our life
is that we are most likely to make it meaningful and to live it fully and because
by familiarizing ourself with death, we can remove the fear that is so haunting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The aim or mark of a spiritual practitioner is to have no
fear, not now and certainly not at the time of death. People who practice to
the best of their abilities in each and every moment will die, it is said, in a
state of great bliss. In other words, the more diligent our practice, the less
death is an issue.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here’s a traditional Tibetan meditation that looks at the
certainty and imminence of death and can help motivate us to make the best use
of our lives. Consider making this a regular practice. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The practice is known as the nine-round death meditation, in
which we contemplate the three roots, the nine reasonings, and the three
convictions:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Root One: Death is Certain</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. There is no possible way to escape death. No one ever
has. Of the current world population of over 7 billion people, virtually none
will be alive in 100 years time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Life has a definite limit. And although it is not
defined, each moment brings us closer to death. We are dying from the moment we
are born.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. Death comes in a moment and its time is unexpected. All
that separates us from the next life is one breath.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
First Conviction: To practice the spiritual path, to cultivate
positive, wholesome mental qualities and abandon unwholesome, negative mental
qualities.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Root Two: The Time of Death is Uncertain</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. The duration of our life is uncertain. The young can die
before the old, the healthy before the sick, etc.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5. There are many causes and circumstances that lead to
death, but few that favor the sustenance of life. Even things that sustain life
can kill us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6. The weakness and fragility of one's physical body
contribute to life's uncertainty.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The body can be easily destroyed by disease or accident.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Second Conviction: To ripen our inner potential now, without
delay; to practice as though our head was on fire.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Root Three: The Only Thing That Can Help Us At The Time of
Death Is Our Mental/Spiritual Development (because what goes into your next
life are the karmic imprints we have accumulated in this life)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
7. Worldly possessions such as wealth, position, money can't
stop death</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
8. Relatives and friends can neither prevent death nor go
with or for us.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
9. Even our own precious body is of no help to us. We have
to leave it behind like a shell, an empty husk, an overcoat.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Third Conviction: To work with great diligent on purifying
body, speech and mind, without staining our efforts with attachment to worldly things
and concerns.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My own experience with death leads me to suggest that
starting here with the three roots is safe and doable. Try contemplating each
of the roots, each of the nine reasonings, and each of the three convictions
for an hour or so once a week, and in a few years, or a decade or two, when
they have settled in and you have come to some sense of meaningful peace with
them, consider finding a teacher who can guide you more deeply into other
practices on dying and death, such as the meditations on decaying bodies that is
a traditional part of the Theravada teachings, or the more advanced Tibetan practices
that have developed this area of Buddhism into a deep and profound practice and
science.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Email through our <a href="http://www.northshoremeditation.org/Pages_contact/contact.html">website</a> if you have any questions about practicing with death and dying.</div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8327503256965023132.post-75424256410460611212012-04-27T08:13:00.000-05:002012-04-27T08:14:10.541-05:00Understanding and Ending Our Dukkha<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I teach dukkha and the ending of
dukkha.”<o:p></o:p></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">–The Buddha<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The most important and fundamental aspect of our spiritual
practice must start with an understanding of what the Buddha taught, what the
aim of his teaching was, and that must start with an understanding of the one
word that was the cornerstone of his teaching: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dukkha</i>.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Defining the Undefinable but Ever Present<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No single English word adequately captures the full depth,
range, and subtlety of the crucial Pali term <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dukkha</i>. Over the years, many translations of the word have been
used ("stress," "unsatisfactoriness,"
"suffering," etc.). Each has its own merits in a given context. There
is value in not letting oneself get too comfortable with any one particular
translation of the word, since the entire thrust of Buddhist practice is the
broadening and deepening of one's understanding of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dukkha</i> until its roots are finally exposed and eradicated once and
for all. One helpful rule of thumb: as soon as you think you've found the
single best translation for the word, think again: for no matter how you
describe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">dukkha</i>, it's always deeper,
subtler, and more unsatisfactory than that.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dukkha</i></b> is, from a definition by Buddhist scholar Francis Story:
Disturbance, irritation, dejection, worry, despair, fear, dread, anguish,
anxiety; vulnerability, injury, inability, inferiority; sickness, aging, decay
of body and faculties, senility; pain/pleasure; excitement/boredom;
deprivation/excess; desire/frustration, suppression; longing/aimlessness;
hope/hopelessness; effort, activity, striving/repression; loss, want, insufficiency/satiety;
love/lovelessness, friendlessness; dislike, aversion/attraction;
parenthood/childlessness; submission/rebellion; decision/indecisiveness,
vacillation, uncertainty.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Three Roots of Dukkha<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(The Three Poisons: Greed, Anger, and Delusion)<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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What we notice from meditation is that we only do things, when
all is said and done, to get more of what we want, what we like, what we think
we should have or should be, or inversely, to get less of the things we don’t
want, don’t like, and don’t think we should have.</div>
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We notice, as we watch our body and breath, that this
constant desire for more is unending. We always need and want something more.
This is the operant model we use for processing information. We filter all our
experiences through this “greed” lens, storing all our memories in stories
about whether we want more of this type of event or less.</div>
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We do this because of our delusion that the world should be
other than what it is, and that if we can only get it to be our way, everything
will be fine and we will be happy. This is nonsense. For it to work, everyone
in the world would have to want things to be my way.</div>
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Because of this way of processing our lives, we are never
able to be satisfied. And to make things worst, when we don’t get what we want,
we become angry (everything from mild irritation to wrath arises from our greed
and delusion).</div>
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This anger shadows our lives, an anger that arises from
never getting enough, always having to protect and defend, never being satisfied.
Simply put, we must overcome our greed and anger and delusion if we are to end
our suffering. That is what the Buddha taught: life must be all about purifying
ourselves and ending our suffering. Why would we choose anything else?</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Observing Dukkha<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">If you pay attention (to your body and
breath) for just five minutes, you learn that pleasant sensations lead to the
desire that these sensations will stay and that unpleasant sensations lead to
the hope that they will go away. And both the attraction and the aversion
amount to tension in the mind. Both are uncomfortable. So in the first minutes,
you get a big lesson about suffering: wanting things to be other than what they
are. Such a tremendous amount of truth to be learned just closing your eyes and
paying attention to [your breath and] bodily sensations. </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT;">–Sylvia
Boorstein.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Try This Five Minute Meditation Now</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial-ItalicMT; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Arrange yourself in a comfortable, upright position, in a
chair or cross-legged on a sofa or the floor. Bring your attention to the
sensation of breathing. Take a few deep breaths, observing the breaths at your
abdomen. Find a spot in your abdomen where you can easily track your breath,
allow yourself to breath normally, and focus there. Stay with that spot,
noticing how it feels as you breathe in and out. Don't force the breath, or
bear down too heavily with your focus. Let the breath flow naturally, and
simply keep track of how it feels. </div>
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If your mind wanders off, simply bring it back.</div>
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Observe the breathe in that spot for a minute or so, then
shift to a spot two-inches to the right of the original location. Notice how it
feels in this new spot. Observe it there for a minute or so, then shift to a
spot two-inches to the left of the original location. Again, notice how it
feels in this new location. Observe it for a minute or so, then shift to a spot about
two-inches above the original location. Again, observe it for a minute, then
shift to a spot two-inches below the original location.</div>
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Finally, take a few noticeable, deep breaths and then gently
open your eyes and consider how each spot felt different, how your created
affinities and aversions, how you made your dukkha.</div>
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<b>The Causes of
Suffering</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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If we really want to end our suffering, we need some idea of what
causes it. On the most basic level, the cause of suffering is our story-telling.
As we experienced in the five-minute meditation above, we create our own
suffering, we codify it into stories about what is good and fair, comfortable
and satisfying, rather than allowing ourselves to just be present with what is.<o:p></o:p></div>
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To end our suffering, therefore, we have to eliminate the story-telling.
This is best done methodically. It cannot be accomplished simply by an act of
will, by wanting them to go away. The work must be guided by investigation.</div>
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Start by noticing the depth and breath of your stories.</div>
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Observe that all stories are fabrications, fictions, not
real.</div>
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Next, notice the general structure of all story: they desire
things to be other than what they are.</div>
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Then, observe how we attach to our stories, believe them to
be true and accurate, protect and defend these foolish fictions.</div>
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Finally, stop believing your stories, stop believe that
anything your mind tells you is true.</div>
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While you are practicing this, study hard the Two Truths, which will be the subject of a future blog.</div>
</div>North Shore Meditation and Dharma Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00322334814422504635noreply@blogger.com0